Specialist - Housing Justice

Summary

The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) seeks a full-time Housing Specialist with a proven history of high-quality intensive case management services provision, to provide culturally responsive services through the Housing Justice Program.

The Housing Justice program is focused on providing culturally responsive services to unhoused women, living on Skid Row, who have experienced long-term homelessness and have been historically underserved by traditional housing programs.

This innovative program is dedicated to implementing the recommendations of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness and the Ad- Hoc Committee on Women Experiencing Homelessness and is designed to house the most vulnerable women of Skid Row quickly and permanently.

Housing Justice is a collaboration between Downtown Women’s Center, the Mayor’s Office, City Council, and other homeless service sector partners.

This senior level direct service role is responsible for providing intensive case management services, housing navigation, and conducting outreach to women in the Skid Row area.

The Case Manager will be responsible for engaging women in services, building a caseload, establishing housing linkages and placement, and provide individualized case management using Housing First and Rapid Re-Housing Models.

This position will report directly to the Housing Justice Program Supervisor.

Essential Functions

• Provide culturally responsive field-based case management services to the most vulnerable women living in the Skid Row area to secure housing, including landlord engagement, identification of housing locations in the community, conducting biopsychosocial assessments, creating individual service plans, including goals to ensure housing stability, and ensuring women are linked to the appropriate services.
• Implement recommendations from the Ad-Hoc Committees on Black People Experiencing Homelessness, and Ad-Hoc Committee on Women Experiencing Homelessness, in providing services ranging from outreach, housing navigation, housing retention and connection with community resources.
• Collaborate with community service providers to identify appropriate clients through educational presentations and street outreach, as needed.
• Arrange transportation or provide transportation in a personal vehicle, as needed, to ensure that clients can attend appointments.
• Research and provide necessary referrals for linkage with health care, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, food, employment, job training, public benefits and other services as indicated by treatment planning.
• Assist newly housed clients in familiarizing and connecting with community resources including but not limited to, local grocery stores, entertainment, transportation, health care and social supports and services.
• Address client crisis, as needed.
• Work to effectively meet clients’ needs and resolve individual barriers through follow-up, advocacy and collaboration with DWC staff and other community service providers.
• Process housing applications including but not limited to project-based Permanent Supportive Housing and PHA (Public Housing Authorities) voucher applications.
• Maintain accurate and timely records of activities, case management notes, and services provided to each participant.
• Participate in weekly individual and group supervision, in addition to other agency meetings and trainings as required.
• Participate in quarterly peer chart reviews by providing and responding to colleague feedback and making necessary corrections in a timely manner.
• Develop and maintain relationships with clients, staff and local service providers, participate in community meetings pertaining to services benefiting clients, and serve as a representative of DWC at community events.
• Be an ambassador of DWC and its mission and values by participating in community meetings / events.
• Provide weekly, monthly, and as needed written reports to the Program Supervisor as assigned.
• Advocate for racial equity and eliminating systemic barriers to housing retention.
• Additional duties as assigned.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Competencies

• Strong engagement skills
• Culturally Responsive
• Flexibility
• Empathy
• Communication
• Relationship building
• Teamwork

Supervisory Responsibility

This position does not have supervisory responsibilities.

Work Environment

This position is primarily field-based, meeting clients in the field, but does also sometimes work in a professional office environment.

This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and ability to adjust focus.

This would require the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets and bend or stand on a stool as necessary.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are Monday- Friday 8 : 00am to 4 : 30 pm

Travel

Travel is expected for this position. The position is primarily field based.

Required Education, Experience, and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in social work or a related field preferred, Master’s degree a plus.
• Case management experience required.
• Strong knowledge of the complexity of poverty and women’s homelessness, multi-culturalism and diversity, trauma, health and mental health issues, substance abuse and older adults;

familiarity with permanent supportive housing model and evidence-based practices

• Familiarity with Housing First model, Motivational Interviewing, Harm Reduction and other evidence-based practices, preferred.
• Experience working in homeless services and familiarity with the Skid Row community strongly preferred.
• Excellent judgement, active listening and crisis intervention skills
• Effective crisis management skills and conflict resolutions skills
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills; proven ability to communicate with diverse audiences.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities, including proficiency in balancing direct service responsibilities with data management responsibilities.
• Strong administrative skills and proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook) required
• Ability to be flexible with hours when needed.
• Current valid California state driver’s license, comprehensive insurance, and good driving record
• Lived experience is a strong plus.
• Cultural humility.
• Must be a CA resident and live no more than 75 miles from DWC; must be available for in-person meetings at DWC.
• Must provide documentation of a negative TB test result within the last twelve months, on first day of hire.
• You will be required to be up to date on your vaccinations against COVID-19 and provide documentation. If you are fully vaccinated and not yet eligible to receive a booster dose, then you must receive the booster dose within 30 days of becoming eligible and eligibility begins 5 months after receiving the final primary dose.

If you are fully vaccinated and have received a booster dose, you are considered up to date with your vaccinations. Unvaccinated individuals must receive their 1st dose before their first day of hire.

Partially vaccinated (for 2-dose series) individuals must receive their 2nd dose within 30 days of being hired. The second dose of a two-dose vaccine series is due 4 weeks after the primary dose.

Pay Range

$24.03 / hour

Work Authorization / Security Clearance (if applicable)

Being authorized to work in the U.S. is a precondition of employment. DWC does not sponsor employment visas, such as H-1B.

Downtown Women’s Center provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants and actively seeks candidates who reflect the rich diversity of the communities that we serve.

We are committed to a work environment that embraces and promotes individuality and inclusion. We believe that diversity and inclusion of varied perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences are essential to our organization’s effectiveness, and allow us to serve our clients in the respectful, responsive, and understanding way that they deserve.

We define diversity in broad terms to include race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, mental or physical disability, marital status, pregnancy, military and veteran status, medical condition, geography, socio-economic status, and other unique attributes that make us who we are.

Downtown Women’s Center complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.

Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.