Housing Coordinator

People USA•Poughkeepsie, NY

About The Position

The Full-Time Housing Coordinator staff will support the daily operations at the assigned Location. She or he provides peer support for each housing participant enrolled in the program. The Housing Coordinator is available to instill hope, support wellness and demonstrate that recovery is real and does happen. Staff model and utilize trauma-informed techniques and tools, help guests set goals and engage in community and social events. The Housing Coordinator position will be a peer (personal lived experience/s with mental health challenges or substance use challenges) who implements PEOPLe, USA’s Supportive Housing programs (MRT, OMH, HUD), helping people with histories of mental health challenges to live independent, self-determined lives in the community.

Requirements

High School degree or equivalency.
Personal lived experience/s with mental illness or substance abuse.
Clean & valid driver’s license
New York State Certified Peer Specialist must be obtained within 6 months of hire.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree
Bilingual English/Spanish
Significant demonstrable experience in health & human services
Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP).
All other training assigned to staff must be done in a timely manner.

Responsibilities

Provides screenings to potential program participants identified through the local county’s Single Point of Access (SPOA) process (Help directly link potential program participants not identified through SPOA with the necessary resources to become SPOA-identified.
Educates potential program participants on who PEOPLe USA. is, what the agency stands for (mission & core values), and how the agency’s Supported Housing program operates.
Provides additional information on OMH, MRT, or HUD Supportive Housing guidelines and general housing.
Assists accepted program participants with budgeting, incl. rental costs, utilities, program subsidies, personal finances, and other related personnel costs.
Directly explore with participants housing rental options that suit their financial, environmental, and personal needs.
Assists participants in completing rental applications .
Assists participants in understanding all leasing contract components.
Assists participants in managing the moving process.
Assists participants in furnishing rentals.
Help participants to continuously budget their money sensibly to maintain their housing and other basic needs.
Help participants to continuously budget their money to maintain their housing and other basic needs.
Regularly verify participants’ income and budgeted costs to ensure that rental subsidies are up-to date and accurate.
Maintains regular meaningful contact with participants (amount determined by participants), with no less than one (1) face-to-face and two (2) additional indirect contacts per month.
Educates participants on useful health & wellness topics, including but not limited to: Peer/Self-Help resources, Recovery from Mental Health Challenges (from a Psychiatric Rehabilitation perspective), Wellness & Whole Health (SAMHSA’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness), Community Resources (across all domains of health, e.g.: physical, mental, substance use, socioeconomic determinants of health), Trauma & Healing, Wellness Planning & Prevention(e.g. WRAP), Natural Supports (developing/maintaining).
Helps participants to identify barriers to their recovery journeys or personal wellness, including issues related to access, quality of care, people’s rights, lack of basic needs, and stigma & discrimination.
Advocates with participants side-by-side to overcome identified barriers, making sure their voices are heard, and their decisions are understood and respected.
Builds peer-to-peer connections/relationships based on mutuality (shared lived experiences), empathy, and hope for recovery/wellness (peers-as-proof).
Provides peer support, sharing stories, personal feelings, information, and strategies for living well.
Coaches clients to identify & accomplish whole health goals related to the Eight Dimensions of Wellness (emotional, social, physical, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, spiritual).
Directly connects people to the services and supports they need through direct bridging/linking (as opposed to referrals only).
Develops and maintains positive working relationships with other provider agencies, and local housing providers (landlords) within the county and its surrounding environs.
Documents all meaningful interactions in electronic records software and maintain hard copies in participants’ files.
Regularly attend SPOA meetings, HUD Continuum of Care meetings, and other related meetings.
Consistently support PEOPLe, USA.’s mission to instill a sense of hope, empowerment, and self-determination in people living with mental illness that fosters recovery and a transition to wellness.
Align all behaviors with core values that promote trauma-informed care, customer engagement and satisfaction, mutuality & empathy, and a philosophical commitment that everyone can and will recover.
Staff must document their time in Paycor effectively.
Staff cannot work over their positions allocated hours without Director approval.
Staff Assigned to work with individuals transitioning out of Rockland Psychiatric Center are responsible for providing more intensive case management services.
Home Visits will be done weekly with participants rather than monthly.