DEPARTMENT: Human Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Melody Woosley
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Revised contract for Residential Energy Assistance Partnership (REAP) utility assistance and amendment to contract for Kinetech electronic emergency utility bill application for resident assistance
SUMMARY:
This ordinance authorizes an agreement with the Residential Energy Assistance Partnership, Inc. (REAP) for the issuance of utility assistance credits in a projected amount of $800,000.00, and authorizes an amendment to an agreement with Kinetech Cloud, LLC to host and maintain an emergency utility bill assistance software application to electronically process up to 30,000 applications at a cost of $36,250 annually, and to provide enhancements to the electronic application process as requested by the Department of Human Services (DHS) at a cost of up to $20,000 through November 20, 2022.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In 2002, the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, and CPS Energy established REAP as a method to help local economically disadvantaged families in need of utility assistance. Specifically, REAP provides direct utility bill credits to income qualifying CPS Energy customers living within the City of San Antonio and Bexar County. REAP funds are raised locally, financed by donations from CPS Energy customers and trust investment income.
CPS Energy provides $800,000 annually to the City of San Antonio Department of Human Services for the REAP utility assistance program. In addition to the $800,000, the City may request additional disbursement of funds from the REAP corpus. The current estimated balance of the corpus is $3.2 million. During calendar year 2019, an additional $1 million has been transferred from the corpus, and $2.2 million in credits have been utilized overall to provide assistance to CPS Energy customers. Area residents can utilize an electronic application developed by Kinetech Cloud, LLC to apply for the utility assistance and upload...
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