Macon Housing Authority

MBE / WBE

To accomplish our mission of providing quality, affordable housing opportunity to low income families, Macon Housing Authority seeks vendors from which we can obtain goods and services. We are especially interested in increasing our business partnership opportunities with Minority-Owned Business Enterprises (MBEs) and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (WBEs). MWBE participation may be through direct sales by an MWBE, by MWBE subcontracting, or a business partnership agreement.

Minority Business Enterprise

Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) is a small business concern as defined pursuant to Section 3 of the Small Business Act as amended (15U.S.C.637(a)) and implementing regulations, that is owned and controlled by one or more minority persons or women. For the purpose of this definition, minority person means an individual who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States and who is: African American, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian or Alaskan Native, and members of groups or individuals found to be socially or economically disadvantaged by the Small Business Administration under section 8 of the Small Business Act, as amended (15 U.S.C. 637(1)).

Owned & Controlled Businesses

Owned and controlled businesses are those deemed to be at least 51% owned by one or more minorities or women or, in the case of a publicly owned business, at least 51% of the stock of which is owned by one or more minorities or women, and whose management and daily business operations are controlled by one or more such individuals.

Participating as a Subcontractor

Many good MBE/WBE businesses are too small or too specialized to compete for large general construction contracts. However, many of these same firms may find profitable business opportunities as subcontractors or material suppliers on MHA work.

To encourage these opportunities, MHA requires general contractors to actively recruit MBE/WBE businesses as subcontractors. Each major construction contract contains a goal for MBE/WBE participation, and each general contractor that bids the work must show their for achieving this goal. This means that every general contractor bidding MHA work will be actively seeking proposals from reliable MBE/WBE subcontractors.

There are several ways to complete for this work. First, be sure to register in the Vendor Director, so that we can supply your firm’s name to interested general contractors. Also, we encourage you to watch for MHA bid advertisements or contact us about our upcoming work. We’ll be glad to refer your firm to contractors bidding the job. If you wish, we will also supply you with the names of general contractors who plan to bid so that you may contact them directly.

Joint Ventures

Sometimes well-qualified MBE/WBE companies find that a particular construction project is too large for their firm to tackle alone, or perhaps it exceeds their bonding capacity. MHA encourages MBE/WBE businesses to form joint ventures with other companies, whether or not the other company is an MBE/WBE, in order to bid our major work. MBE/WBEs using this method have been successful in landing substantial contracts with MHA.

Davis Bacon Act