Director of Housing

The Boston Public Health Commission's Homeless Services Bureau (HSB) provides emergency shelter, job training, behavioral health support, and housing services to unhoused individuals in Boston. The HSB serves close to 5,000 individuals every year and is one of the largest providers of emergency shelter in New England. HSB aims to make homelessness in Boston rare, brief, and one time. It does that by problem-solving with new guests at the front door to try to prevent anyone from entering homelessness to begin with. For individuals who do become homeless and use our shelters, HSB endeavors to help them quickly move out of homelessness and find a safe and stable place to live. After a client is housed outside the shelter, HSB staff provides in-home support to help individuals avoid someone a return to homelessness. The HSB uses a Housing First and racial justice framework, which is built on the foundation that housing is a social determinant of health, a basic need that everyone deserves, and does not require sobriety. HSB believes that everyone, with the right support, can succeed in housing. HSB fosters evidence-based approaches such as trauma-informed care, harm reduction, and motivational interviewing in the delivery of services, and strives to deliver services that are accessible to all clients.

The housing department helps clients quickly find and move out of homelessness and into permanent housing and then helps clients succeed in housing. Through housing navigation, housing staff engage clients in housing conversations, help them access all possible housing options, and coordinate unit viewings, lease signings, and move-in logistics. Through landlord relations and housing location, housing staff build rapport with current and potential landlords, explain program details, and help locate viable housing opportunities. Through housing stabilization, housing staff work to ensure that clients succeed in housing and do not return to homelessness by providing in-home support and connecting clients to community-based services.

Reporting to the Associate Bureau Director, the Director of Housing is responsible for developing and managing the Bureau's housing services. The director is an excellent manager who can both identify strategic priorities and ensure quality implementation of services. They have experience in housing vulnerable populations, developing departmental protocols, ensuring grant and funding compliance, and delivering services with a trauma-informed, racial equity lens. The Housing Director is responsible for building capacity of the Housing Department to rapidly increase the number of clients we house each year by developing, monitoring, and implementing departmental policies, protocols, and new grant initiatives.

DUTIES:

Senior leadership position within the Homeless Services Bureau responsible for managing and developing all the Bureau's housing services to help the Bureau meet its goals of making homelessness a brief episode and a one-time occurrence.

• Responsible for the overall management of all Bureau's housing services, including housing navigation, housing search, landlord relationships, and housing stabilization.
• Develops policies and protocols to ensure effective service delivery of each area listed above to ensure that clients access housing quickly and maintain housing successfully.
• Manages and oversees staff to implement clear workflows, ensures program model integrity, monitors grant and funding compliance, and frequently reviews data to inform needed changes to the program model.
• Ensures all services embody the principles of housing first and promote racial equity. Champions creative approaches and works to advocate and problem-solve to help clients with high barriers succeed in getting and staying housed.
• Works collaboratively with BHA, MBHP, HomeStart, PSI and Boston area landlords on securing apartment units for our clients. Develops relationship with landlords and ensures apartments meet safe housing standards.
• In collaboration with BPHC finance, oversees and monitors BPHC leases and monthly payments for BPHC leased units, ensuring timely and accurate payments, and program and funding compliance.
• Actively collaborates with other Bureau departments, including Triage, Behavioral Health, Operations, and Workforce Development, to identify the most effective ways to engage shelter guests in housing services and keeping shelter guests housed.
• Develops and conducts regular training to improve staff's expertise in housing services. Ensures all housing staff are trained in housing navigation, critical time intervention, and their specific programs' policies and workflows.
• Ensures timeliness and accuracy of department's use of HMIS; runs reports to track progress on housing goals, conducts regular data validations.
• Monitors spending for assigned grants as well as