Housing Navigation Liaison

CCA partners with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide supportive temporary emergency shelter to families under the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities' Emergency Assistance program. Our shelter program is part of the Commonwealth's response to a rapidly growing number of unhoused families, including thousands of families migrating from Haiti due to natural disasters and civil unrest, whose primary language is Haitian Creole. CCA and our partners provide linguistically and culturally appropriate case management and nurse triage support, connecting families with services such as insurance, health care, nutrition assistance, schools, daycare, immigration legal aid, as well as pathways to work and housing navigation.

The Housing Navigator, Family Emergency Shelters, serves as a housing expert for the family emergency shelter program, designing and collaboratively implementing housing navigation initiatives to ensure the rapid re-housing of families. They will work across all CCA-managed shelter sites to assess housing needs, develop and deliver trainings for CCA and vendor staff on housing navigation resources and approaches, develop and implement a performance management program for housing navigation efforts across CCA's shelter sites, and serve as an expert consultant on a high volume of specific family cases. The Housing Navigator, together with the Site Managers, hold joint accountability for ensuring a high volume of families efficiently moved to long-term housing.

They will support CCA's family shelter central leadership team on all housing navigation initiatives, including development and execution of standardized onboarding and training, policies and procedures, facilitate sharing of best practices, and manage performance across sites. They will flexibly support program operations on-site as needed.

This position requires regular on-site presence at family shelter sites across Massachusetts as well as occasional travel to additional locations.

Qualifications:

• High School Diploma required, Bachelor's Degree preferred
• At least two years of experience providing intensive housing navigation services in Massachusetts
• Five years experience providing intensive housing navigation services in Massachusetts preferred
• Experience working in family shelters preferred
• Experience working with individuals that have recently immigrated to the US, particularly from Haiti preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to creatively leverage housing navigation resources in Massachusetts to successfully connect families with long-term housing. Expertise in housing funding resources and opportunities.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver effective trainings.
• Experience in shelters, social services or related environments supporting people with housing navigation.
• Requires excellent interpersonal skills in order to communicate and work with staff and external partners of all skill and experience levels
• Demonstrated ability to identify problems and opportunities for improvement and develop plans for resolution.
• Must be able to work collaboratively and create an atmosphere of trust and respect within project teams and with external partners
• Must be highly organized and self-directed with a proven ability to work with supervision on departmental and cross-functional projects of a diverse nature
• Computer skills: intermediate Excel skills including pivot tables, lookup functions, etc. and an interest in continued learning in Excel functions; intermediate skills in other Microsoft Office suite products.
• Must be able to exercise a high level of diplomacy to recognize politically sensitive issues
• Ability to multi-task and switch gears quickly / effectively
• Ability to take personal initiative and work independently, as well as part of a team
• Reliable transportation and ability to travel throughout Massachusetts
• English required, Bilingual (Haitian Creole or Spanish) preferred

Required Other:

• Valid driver's license and reliable access to a vehicle.

Design and collaboratively implement housing navigation initiatives to ensure the rapid re-housing of families at CCA's family shelter sites across Massachusetts.

• Assess needs: Partner with shelter staff to assess and document family housing needs, considering factors such as family size, desired geographic location and public transit needs.
• Resource information: Collect, organize and disseminate information to shelter staff and families on housing navigation approaches and resources available across Massachusetts appropriate to the families we serve. Draft internal job aids such as workflows where needed. Develop and maintain program-wide files of these resources, and promote their use by the team. Build partnerships with landlords and community based organizations to access opportunities for families served.
• Trainings: Develop and deliver both on-site and virtual trainings for CCA and vendor staff on housing navigation resources and approaches, and provided follow-up in-person coaching for case managers at shelter sites across Massachusetts.
• Performance management: Develop and implement a performance management program for housing navigation efforts across CCA's shelter sites, collaboratively amplifying and implementing best practices, ensuring the capture of accurate timely data, and driving initiatives to ensure continuous performance improvement.
• Consult on specific cases: Serve as an expert consultant on a high volume of specific family cases, partnering with Site Managers and individual case managers and families to troubleshoot complex cases and essure an efficient resolution.
• Data and reporting: Maintain clear understanding of programmatic data capture requirements and on-site operations related to housing navigation, and proactively work with sites to ensure compliance with program requirements (eg data capture in the Commonwealth's online ETO portal) as well as to capture, review and ensure accuracy of data in CCA's internally developed databases.

Operational and programmatic support

Flexibly support family emergency shelter program operations and program as needed. This may include providing operational support on-site, ordering and distributing supplies, and assisting with troubleshooting issues that arise.

Other duties as assigned.

This position requires regular on-site presence at family shelter sites across Massachusetts as well as occasional travel to additional locations.

Working Conditions:

Work will be on-site at multiple family emergency shelter locations across Massachusetts, with occasional travel to other sites. Occasional work at CCA offices or remote may be possible depending on program needs.

May include moving of supplies and equipment.