Job Summary

The JourneyHome Rapid Re-Housing (JHRRH) Case Manager supports families experiencing homelessness who reside throughout the Seattle and King County area. This position is part of a team that works with families in crisis to rapidly obtain and stabilize housing. The JHRRH Case Manager provides housing-focused supportive services to participants facing a wide variety of challenges, including history of trauma, poverty, domestic violence, justice system involvement, child custody issues, mental health challenges, and substance use. The majority of time is spent out of the office, working with participants around housing search, goal planning and budgeting, and providing advocacy, information and referrals to services with the goal to help families exit homelessness and establish and maintain a permanent home.

**Please note: This position is .80 FTE/32 hrs. a week

Essential Responsibilities, Duties and Tasks

Case Management: Provide consistent, intensive, community and home-based case management, resource referral and follow-up assistance to homeless families in King County who are addressing a variety of issues and barriers to obtaining and maintaining permanent housing. Support families in advocating for their needs and accessing services and resources, such as employment programs, mental and physical healthcare, parenting supports, immigration, furniture, domestic violence advocacy, childcare, and legal aid. Assist participants in applying for public benefits, partner with Benefits Legal Assistance to mitigate legal issues if needed. Act as a liaison between participant families and community agencies involved with their case and maintain ongoing communication with other providers as needed. Travel throughout King County and occasionally adjacent counties to meet with participants where they are residing; Provide regular home and community based individualized support to families before and after they are permanently housed, utilizing a harm reduction, trauma-informed, whole person approach to care. Utilize crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques as needed to support safety and stability. Conduct financial coaching sessions with participants focused on helping them to create and follow a realistic budget, build a plan to increase and maintain income, and leverage resources to minimize financial burdens, including linkage to programs focused on credit repair, debt reduction and employment search support.

Collaboration: Partner with Landlord Engagement Specialist to help families secure and maintain permanent housing. Conduct strengths-based assessment of housing placement barriers and work in partnership with participants to develop plans for obtaining and maintaining permanent housing. Provide guidance, assistance with the application process, direct housing linkages, and landlord advocacy throughout the housing search process in collaboration with participants and the Landlord Engagement Specialist. Negotiate with creditors of past rental housing debt, on behalf of participants, to lower the amount due or set up a payment plan. Refer and partner with debt-focused legal services. Assist participants in requesting legal Orders of Limited Dissemination when necessary. Conduct housing inspections as needed to assist participants to move into housing quickly. Provide tenancy support and education to program participants, with particular focus around local, state, and federal housing laws. Mediate tenancy and lease compliance issues as they arise with participants’ landlords. Partner with Landlord Engagement Specialist and landlords to ensure a positive working relationship and stable tenancy for program participants. Proactively plan for program graduation with participants to prepare for successful program exit.

Organization: Maintain accurate, confidential and timely participant case records, financial records, and electronic files in Excel spreadsheets and various databases. Ensure high level of accuracy and completeness in documentation and tracking to meet program goals and contractual requirements. Ensure data entry is completed within required timeframes. Complete check requests, credit card payments, money orders, and petty cash requests for participant financial assistance needs. Ensure that participant assistance fund requests are appropriate and are adequately coded and documented to meet funding requirements.

Assessments: Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment with the family, and work with families to create an individualized service plan to address barriers and participant-identified goals, including a plan to increase and maintain income. Regularly evaluate and assess participants’ financial situations and supportive service needs to determine level of interventions. Partner with participants to incorporate new objectives into goal plans and provide limited financial assistance where necessary. Review and actively monitor and update goals and assist participants in making progress toward meeting goals.

Teamwork: Participate in program, Department and agency meetings as required, as well as inter-agency groups (including Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) Consortium and other local RRH initiatives) that provide assistance and advocacy to homeless families. Participate in internal and external trainings pertaining to this position in accordance with learning program. Assist team members with ongoing continuous quality improvement efforts, including creative problem solving, helping to develop program systems or procedures, or participating in focused team workgroups.

The duties listed above are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position. Solid Ground is an equal opportunity employer committed to workplace diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, race and color, religion, marital status, national origin, disability or veteran status.