Cloudburst is seeking consultants to help build equity within the Housing Opportunities for Person with AIDS (HOPWA) Program as part of a national HOPWA Equity Initiative. The HOPWA Equity Initiative (HEI) Consultant must be a person who has or is currently receiving HOPWA assistance.
About HOPWA
HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Person with AIDS) is a federal program funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is specifically designed to serve low-income persons and their families who are living with HIV/AIDS.
About the HOPWA Equity Initiative
The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of HIV/AIDS Housing (OHH), in alignment with the Biden Administrations’ priority of Racial Equity (Memorandum on Redressing Our Nation’s and the Federal Government’s History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies) is instituting the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Race, Gender, and LGBTQ+ Equity Initiative (HEI). It is the policy of the Biden Administration that the Federal Government shall work with communities to end housing discrimination, to provide redress to those who have experienced housing discrimination, to eliminate racial bias and other forms of discrimination in all stages of home-buying and renting, to lift barriers that restrict housing and neighborhood choice, to promote diverse and inclusive communities, to ensure sufficient physically accessible housing, and to secure equal access to housing opportunity for all.
OHH will work with communities to assess their HOPWA Programs’ ability to address equity and provide tools for communities to improve their systems such that people living with HIV and/or AIDS have equitable access to housing and services. This initiative’s desired outcome is to have HOPWA Programs provide services using an equity lens, ensuring that black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), women, and LGBTQ+, have unfettered access to housing and services.
The goals of this initiative are to:
1. Set the expectation in the current environment for communities to adopt equity as a core value.
2. Utilize current data to establish a baseline of how HOPWA programs currently address equity.
3. Develop tools and resources for communities to build their systems to increase equity in their communities.
4. Provide guidance on how communities can address equity as part of their program designs.
5. Identify synergies between HOPWA, HUD’s Community Planning and Development (CPD) Programs, and Health and Human Services (HHS) around equity efforts.
6. Allocate resources to ensure successful movement in the direction of improved equity.
Consultant Tasks
The HEI Consultant will be an active member the initiative’s HOPWA Equity Initiative team and will participate in the creation and direction of the project.
The HEI Consultant will participate in team meetings, assist with the development of “best practices,” and other activities as requested.
The HEI Consultant will:
- Possess strong communication skills
- Have access to a computer, stable internet that can run Zoom calls or other meeting platforms, and must have regular access to a telephone
- Be available to work as a consultant between 5-10 hours per month, including meetings during the business hours of 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM Eastern Time.
This is a consultant and not a staff position and will be paid an hourly rate which should include all costs necessary to participate in the work.
Desired Consultant criteria includes individuals who:
- Currently receive (or have previously received) HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program
- Identify as a member of the LGBTQ community
- Are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or Asian
- Currently receive (or have previously received) other federal housing programs
If you meet the above qualifications and are interested in consulting with Cloudburst, please respond to this Request for Qualifications by sending an email to [email protected] with the following information:
1. A paragraph that includes a brief biography detailing your experience.
2. Your Availability – average # of hours you could be available per month.
3. Your proposed hourly consulting rate for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
4. Your resume. If you do not have a resume available, please click here to prepare one.
Please email [email protected] or call 301-412-9229 if you have any questions.
Note: All respondents should be able to work as an individual consultant outside of their regular employment arrangement. Verification may be requested.