Housing Specialist Manager

Title:                           Housing Specialist Manager

Unit:                           Housing (MOC-J/Scatter-site)           

Salary Range:            $70-75k

Status:                        Full Time; Regular; Non-Exempt

Location:                    620 West 140^th Street, New York, NY 10031

Days/Hours:               Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm

Date Prepared:          November 20th, 2024

Position Summary:

The Fortune Society offers a large portfolio of housing including emergency and transitional and congregate in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, as well as scattered site units throughout New York City. At each of our emergency and transitional housing locations, Fortune employs Housing Specialists to assist individuals in the transition to permanent housing. The Housing Specialist Manager would be responsible for overseeing the Housing Specialists across all locations, ensuring residents are meeting routinely with their Housing Specialist to move seamlessly from transitional to permanent housing.

Mission, Culture and Fit

The candidate must have a history of working with a population who have been diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) and co-occurring disorders. In addition, the person must be able interact and work with a persons impacted by the legal system and have a history of homelessness. Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment.

Communication

The candidate must have the ability to be proactive, work cohesively and network with others, contribute to discussions and be solution oriented as well as communicate effectively in written and oral communication.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Manage permanent placements from DHS, Academy, and transitional housing.

• Assist the Vice President of Housing to develop and implement strategic operational systems that will enhance programmatic reports and evaluation based on funding goals.

• Monitor intake of new referrals, coordinate with property management to review housing stock.  Input vacant units into the Coordinated Assessment Placement System (CAPS). Provide CAPS access for new staff.

• Attend unit meetings, provide updates to program staff.  Provide trainings on housing availability.

• Act as liaison with members Fortune staff to ensure continuity of treatment from internal and external providers.

• Work with program staff to maintain vacancy records and reports across the organization to ensure the expeditious backfilling of vacancies

• Conduct and coordinate ongoing outreach for referrals and collect required documentation based on the document checklist for each program or location

• Liaison with property management on apartment stock and Housing Quality Standards (HQS).

• Keep records of progress and interaction with referral sources and candidates.  Effectively explain to the referral sources and/or candidates all of the required documents, as well as answer questions

• Communicate appointments, confirmation, document checklist, ineligibility letters and low priority letters to candidates when applicable

• Maintain all documentation received in designated manner to ensure efficient, effective follow-up to meet MOCJ and DHS placement outcomes.

• Submit timely monthly and weekly reports on program progress.

• Perform other duties as needed.

Qualifications:

• HSE required.
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred, with 4 years of work experience and 2 years of experience working with disadvantaged populations and in housing placements.
• Ability to apply metrics to review work performance towards funding goals. Knowledge of how to use data to inform program needs.
• Experience with databases for entering client information,
• Strong oral and written communications skills required. Experience completing program contracts and staff corrective action plans.
• Bilingual English/Spanish a plus; and
• We seek talented, dedicated individuals from all walks of life who possess a strong commitment to this mission.  Relevant personal experience is a plus.

Travel Requirements: This position requires weekly on-site availability and travel to various Fortune housing and program locations as required.

Physical Demands:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The responsibilities and requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skills, minimum education, training, licensing, experience and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

The Fortune Society is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  All qualified applicants will be afforded equal employment opportunities without discrimination because of conviction history, race, religion/creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, predisposing genetic characteristics, victim of domestic violence status or marital status.