A. Background The Housing Authority of the City of Aurora (AHA) is distributing this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to solicit responses from qualified architects to provide design services for up to 40 units of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for formerly homeless households receiving services through Aurora Mental Health Corporation (AuMHC). AHA was established in 1975 and owns and manages 810 units at ten sites throughout the City of Aurora. The mission of the Housing Authority is to develop and promote quality housing while supporting and encouraging economic opportunities leading to self-sufficiency and independence. This project will be the first PSH development undertaken by the Authority, and thus the experience and guidance of the design team will be critical. Qualified architects should understand the complexity of affordable housing development serving formerly homeless individuals, and demonstrate successful trauma-informed care design solutions that are cost effective, sustainable, and durable.
B. Site and Program The Housing Authority of the City of Aurora will lease 1.12 acres of land from AuMHC on their Potomac Care Campus located at 2190 S. Potomac Street in Aurora Colorado. In addition to housing, AuMHC will build a mental health clinic (with detox beds) and STRIDE will build a community health clinic. AuMHC is currently in the master site plan and subdivision approval process with the City of Aurora and estimates that this work will be completed by November 2022. AuMHC has hired Davis Architecture and Joe Coco at CKE Engineering INC for their building and site plan. Close coordination with these two firms is encouraged. The Housing Authority will work with a qualified architect to design a PSH on the lease parcel that will conform to the master site plan and create an innovative building concept that will be compelling and competitive in a CHFA 9% LIHTC application in February of 2023. The four-story building will include approximately 40,000 square feet of space for up to 40 residential units and community spaces serving chronically homeless single adults or adult only households. The building design should reflect best practices from trauma-informed design for housing and recognize that the campus will have three distinct functions. Understanding the connections, and separations, between functions will be critical.
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