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$0-25,000 DHCD Small Projects Guide

$0-25,000 DHCD Small Projects Guide

Summary Description

Local Housing Authorities (LHA) can now find here in one place all of the information needed to implement smaller capital projects independently. This Guide and Forms replaces the voluntary pilot program called “Accelerated Emergency Response Projects” (AERP) that was used by LHAs to manage small projects on their own.

This DHCD Small Projects Guide should be used for all construction projects with less than $25,000 in construction costs, whether funded with capital, operating, or grant funds. The Guide includes step-by-step instructions which you can follow to make sure your project is done efficiently, cost-effectively and according to the applicable statutes, rules and regulations.

The Guide includes helpful checklists, reference documents, forms and sample documents, so that an LHA can:

Take the project description from the level of detail typical in a capital plan and turn it into a doable project
Decide whether to use professional design services, to what extent and how to engage a professional to work with you
Prepare design documents, compile a bid package, bid and award a contract for the project
Oversee the construction phase from Notice to Proceed (NTP) to closeout update the Capital Planning System to reflect the capital improvements thus installed and centrally record vital operation, repair, parts and warranty information
Certify to DHCD that you have implemented the project in accordance with law and regulation, and
Maintain a project record.

Context

Local Housing Authorities submitted their first-ever Capital Improvement Plans (CIPs) in FY 2012 to spend an allocation of bond funds known as “Formula Funding”. Taken altogether, the CIPs include hundreds of capital projects each year of the three year planning period. This is a four-to-five-fold increase in the number of capital projects previously implemented annually.

Such a dramatic increase requires LHAs to assume a larger role in managing their smaller projects. In recent years, more than 100 LHAs have managed successful Accelerated Emergency Response Projects (AERP) and Water Conservation/Low Flow Toilet Retrofit projects on their own.

DHCD project managers, engineers, architects and construction advisors will still be available to answer questions from LHAs and assist when issues arise that are not addressed in this guide. However, their daily assistance to LHAs will be focused on the hundreds of larger capital projects (over $25,000 and especially over $100,000 in construction cost).