Job Title: Housing Stabilization Specialist

Why work at MCCAC?

Mid-Columbia Community Action Council (MCCAC), located in heart of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, serves Hood River, Wasco and Sherman Counties. MCCAC offers programs and services to ensure our most vulnerable community members have access to healthy, safe, stable and affordable housing. This is accomplished through our housing, energy/utility payment assistance and weatherization programs. MCCAC’s mission is to build a better future for our community through partnership and equity-centered programs that prevent and eliminate poverty and houselessness. MCCAC housing assistance programs promote stability and racial equity through advocacy, empowerment, financial and tenant education, employment and skill building, and coordination of supports and services which enable households to improve their economic and housing stability.

Job Purpose:

Housing Stabilization Specialists play a key role in working to promote stabilization and safety for guests of MCCAC’s Navigation Center “Annex”—a transitional shelter and housing site focused on supporting houseless people to achieve the self-sufficiency necessary to secure permanent housing and stabilize there long-term.

In addition to maintaining the day-to-day operations of The Annex site and supporting guests to follow program guidelines, Housing Stabilization Specialists collaborate with guests through peer support, community and mainstream resource navigation, and housing casework to help them transition to permanent housing. This is accomplished through partnership with outreach and housing service providers, culturally specific organizations, and community-based organizations to ensure that individuals and families experiencing houselessness have access to the wraparound resources needed to regain and maintain housing stability. Housing Stabilization Specialists play an especially important role in building trusting, mutually respectful relationships with guests at The Annex. By doing so, Housing Stabilization Specialists are well positioned to inform guests about services that may help them stabilize, and to motivate guests to pursue a wide range of resources available to them. Examples of resources could include those related to behavioral health, transportation, education and job skill-building, health care insurance, affordable child care, or substance abuse treatment/recovery. Housing Stabilization Specialists are also empowered to convene support groups or plan group activities among guests and to build individual rapport with guests to promote greater emotional health, wellness and resilience during challenges.

Duties, Tasks, and Responsibilities:

Operations and Administration

Housing Stabilization Specialists work designated shifts at The Annex site throughout the week, during which they:

• Follow crisis response protocols and document incidents on-site

• Maintain knowledge of and practice current CDC and other health authority guidelines to ensure the health and safety of guests and staff

• Conduct health and safety inspections of units

• Assist with other site operations as needed such as by managing supplies, coordinating delivery of meals, supervising scheduled group activities, supporting the Regional Shelter Operations Manager to carry out mandatory group meetings with guests living on-site, etc

Supportive Services and Housing Casework

Each Housing Stabilization Specialist will be responsible for conducting the following types of activities with Annex guests. Specialists may have designated “caseloads,” the size and scope of which may differ depending on their background and areas of expertise, the current roster and needs of guests staying at The Annex, and other considerations.

• Build rapport and trusting, supportive relationships

• Conduct housing stabilization casework using a Housing First Approach and motivational interviewing, trauma-informed, harm reduction, and culturally competent skills to support guests to build on strengths and develop housing stabilization plans according to those strengths

• Assist shelter guests with linkage to basic needs resources such as food boxes and hygiene supplies

• Assist shelter guests to learn about and access available community resources that will promote guests’ housing stability and increase household income; this includes but is not limited to MCCAC’s housing stabilization assistance programs and mainstream and community resources such as housing vouchers, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, tuition and student support services, behavioral health and substance abuse recovery supports, etc.

• Help coordinate services from culturally specific and responsive service providers for guests staying at the Annex who are enrolled in or eligible for programs offered by these providers

• Approach housing casework using a Housing First approach and available rapid rehousing and other housing stabilization resources

• Assist in connecting clients with job applications as requested and employment related resources

Data and Compliance

• Enter client specific data into the Homeless Management Information System database system as needed for tracking and reporting purposes

• Utilize referral and case management platforms as needed to ensure effective connections to community and mainstream resources for guests

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Skills, knowledge and demonstrated abilities in areas of emergency shelter services, housing services, street outreach, client advocacy, equity and racial justice, and/or homeless services delivery

• Good oral and written communication skills

• Organized, accurate and concise with attention to detail

• Well developed team-building and problem-solving skills

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office platforms and ability/willingness to use other technological platforms for data, documentation, scheduling, and virtual meeting purposes

• Lived experience accessing one or more services that the position requires one to provide to Annex Guests, such as being a past or present consumer of mental health or substance abuse services with a history of managing one’s own condition; past or present experience being a parent to a child with unique needs; past or present experience managing a physical health condition; experience navigating community resources with a culturally specific or responsive lens 

• Familiarity with or willingness to learn community resources in the Mid-Columbia region

• Certified as or willingness to become certified as a Traditional Health Worker according to Oregon Health Authority standards (Peer, Community Health Worker, etc.)  

• Personal traits including patience, tolerance, caring, maturity, and understanding

• Bilingual in English/Spanish a plus (see info below about additional compensation for bilingual candidates)

Qualifications:

• Minimum of High School diploma or GED equivalent required.

• Experience in homeless or social service programs or lived experience navigating such programs

Position Details:

• This position is rated as active with frequent kneeling, stooping, bending, and sitting, regularly requires the individual to lift 30 pounds

·         The duties outlined in this job description are not all inclusive and additional duties and tasks may be assigned

• MCCAC is an equal employment opportunity provider.

• Location: The Dalles

• Fair Labor Standards Classification: Full-Time, Exempt

• Reports to: Regional Shelter Operations Manager

Salary and Benefits Information

• $42,800-$46,711 annual starting salary, depending on qualifications and experience

• Plus 3% bilingual differential for successful bilingual candidates

• Benefits: Blue Cross medical insurance with the agency covering 90% for employees and dependents. Dental and vision coverage. Life insurance, 401k, paid vacation and sick leave.

To Apply

Email resume and cover letter to Rob Mendoza at rmendoza@mccac.com. Priority deadline Monday, September 24, 2023.