LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mayor Craig Greenberg's Office officially opened a request for proposal Thursday for bids to be a part of the Community Care Campus in the Smoketown neighborhood.
The campus will take up an entire block in the neighborhood and is expected to include temporary housing, a safe outdoor space, medical respite care and family housing.
The mayor's office says the point of the RFP process is for groups to pitch what they do, what buildings they would like to operate in the care campus and also a chance for them to outline their funding models.
Shameka Parrish-Wright with Vocal Kentucky says she has been waiting months on this information, and wishes the city would have communicated sooner that this is how the process was going to work.
"This administration is passionate, I think their heart is in the right place, but sometimes I think they put the cart before the horse," Parrish-Wright said.
The Community Care Campus was announced on Jan. 26., and Parrish-Wright says since then she has been to two listening sessions about the project.
"If I was just a lay person, or somebody who's even running a smaller organization who may want to relocate inside the Community Care Campus, I wouldn't know this much," she said. "It's been a very selective process to even get invited (to the listening sessions)."
The mayor's office says these listening sessions were put on by a coalition formed between Norton Healthcare, the Coalition for the Homeless and other groups. The mayor's office was a partner at these meetings.
WHAS11 News asked a Norton Healthcare spokesperson if they organized the meetings and the spokesperson couldn't comment.
"We don't know if the Community Care Campus is gonna open in December or two years from now," Parrish-Wright said.
The mayor's office says it was doing an inventory of buildings the first six months of the year, and didn't finish acquiring all the buildings on this property until May.
"We had to get control of the property first, we had to pass a budget, we had to close on an acquisition of the property and so we are very inpatient," Greenberg said. "We know there is not a day to waste."
The mayor's office said the first building on the care campus will hopefully open by the end of this year.
The RFP process is scheduled to stay open until August 11. The city is hosting a special "pre-bid meeting" next Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the C2 Event space (which is on the project site). The intent of that meeting is to answer questions from various agencies.
"We're ready, and that's why we're doing this RFP. That's why our budget included even more money for the Community Care Campus. There are procurement rules the city has to follow. So, when we're spending tax money, we're doing it in a fair and open process," Greenberg said.
"Right now, there is an immediate need," Parrish-Wright said. "I think this administration is trying to answer the critics, show up and show that they care."
The mayor's office sent an additional statement saying:
"...Metro Government completed the purchase of the property for the Community Care Campus in early May and in seeking specific proposals for on-site service provisions. There is an additional $300,000 in the recently unanimously passed budget for operating expenses at the Hope Village..."
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