Housing Specialist

The Educational Alliance Inc.•New York, NY

44d•$0 - $26•Onsite

About The Position

Educational Alliance (EA), one of New York City’s original settlement houses, founded in 1889, provides high-quality, transformational programs that enhance well-being and socio-economic opportunities. The Center for Recovery and Wellness (CRW) offers a holistic, strengths-based approach to recovery and wellness, including addiction treatment, recovery services, prevention education, and community programming. We are seeking a full-time Housing Specialist to identify permanent housing for program participants, conduct housing assessments, provide comprehensive case management, assist clients with housing and rental subsidy applications, and offer counseling. This role involves direct services such as guiding clients and staff on housing issues, connecting clients to transitional and supportive housing, assisting residents in finding safe and affordable housing, coordinating with other providers, inspecting potential housing placements, interviewing candidates for suitability, identifying and addressing barriers to housing, and advocating for housing subsidies. Administrative duties include utilizing a housing assessment tool, maintaining an updated database of resources, tracking placements, providing timely reports, and documenting all housing engagement in the database. Referral responsibilities include developing and maintaining linkages with community-based housing support services, referring clients to appropriate providers, and coordinating with landlords, brokers, realty agencies, DHS, and HUD funded housing programs. Other duties include attending weekly staff meetings, required trainings, and performing special projects as assigned.

Requirements

Two years of comparable housing or real estate experience
Bilingual English/Spanish preferred
One year of experience working with substance use population strongly preferred.
Knowledge or experience working with the homeless population preferred.
Knowledge of strengths-based counseling, cognitive behavioral treatment, and behavior modification in practice
Excellent communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
Team-player, able to multi-task and handle challenging situations in a professional and courteous manner.
Ability to work professionally and empathetically with a diverse group of clients and staff.
Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing with a broad variety of people, including other team members and management.
Strong individual and group counseling skills, ability to function independently, attend to detail, and work under pressure.
Ability and willingness to travel within NYC, occasionally with program participants.
Ability to maintain appropriate professional boundaries and confidentiality.
Competency with computer-based programs such as Microsoft Word, Outlook email, Relias, and Electronic Health Records.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in a Human Services field highly preferred.

Responsibilities

Provides guidance to clients and staff as it relates to housing-related issues.
Provide systems connection to step down levels of transitional and supportive housing.
Assists residents in seeking safe, permanent, and affordable housing.
Coordinates with other providers as needed on client cases.
Inspects potential housing placements to ensure they are appropriate for outgoing program participants.
Interviews candidates to ensure income, family size, etc are suitable for placement.
Identifies barriers to housing (i.e.: language, substance abuse, appearance, etc) and provide counseling when needed.
Advocates on participants’ behalf to obtain and/or maintain housing subsidies (CityFHEPS, Section 8, HASA, etc).
Present housing assessment tool to be utilized for understanding the individuals housing history
Maintains updated database of available resources.
Maintains tracking forms for placements; provides accurate reports in a timely manner.
Document all housing engagement via Data Base
Develop and maintain linkages with community-based housing support service resources.
Refer clients to appropriate housing service providers in the community.
Coordinates, develops, and maintains linkages with reliable landlords, brokers and realty agencies.
Coordinate and facilitate business relationships with DHS and HUD funded housing programs.
Attend weekly staff meetings.
Attend trainings as required.
Perform special projects and other duties as assigned.