Do you want to lead the City’s strategic effort to prevent and end homelessness among families in Boston? The City of Boston contributes significant resources to ending family homelessness in addition to large state investments in sheltering and ending family homelessness statewide. Furthermore, Boston has an extensive number of programs and dedicated service providers that house, shelter and support homeless and at-risk families. Boston is working to build a well coordinated system to ensure resources reach the households with the greatest needs. A coordinated system will promote a more housing-centered response to family homelessness, strengthen housing pathways and expand eviction prevention partnerships to prevent and end family homelessness in Boston.

This new Senior Housing Development Officer to End Family Homelessness role will be housed within the Supportive Housing Division at the Department of Neighborhood Development and will work in close partnership with the Office of Housing Stability, as well as staff the Special Commission on Ending Family Homelessness. The role will support the creation of a strategic plan to end homelessness among families, drive implementation of Boston’s strategies to prevent and end family homelessness, facilitate advocacy with state systems to improve outcomes for homeless families, and convene partners to improve coordination.

Brief Job Description:

The mission of the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) is to make Boston the most livable city in the nation by working with communities to build strong neighborhoods through the strategic investment of public resources. DND oversees programs that create and preserve affordable housing, support homeowners and renters, provide housing and support services to homeless individuals and families, dispose of city-owned property, and develop innovative new housing policies and programs to support Boston residents. The Supportive Housing Division leads the City’s strategies to end homelessness and coordinates the Boston Continuum of Care with direction from the Continuum of Care Board, known as the Housing and Stabilization Leadership group. A Continuum of Care is a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and related service funding for people experiencing homelessness.

• Staff the Special Commission on Family Homelessness and document its work.
• Drive the implementation of the Commission’s strategic plan to end family homelessness in partnership with the Boston Continuum of Care’s community of providers and leadership structure.
• Drive advocacy with state systems to improve outcomes for homeless families.
• Convene and coordinate Boston’s extensive family shelter provider network in order to improve coordination and support housing-centered efforts.
• Coordinate with the Boston Housing Authority so that targeted housing interventions across agencies prevent evictions of families in Boston.
• Coordinate with BHA and CoC to house currently homeless families.
• Coordinate and advocate with state systems of care to improve outcomes on complex cases and fix policy/system issues.
• Increase resources and support the scaling up of Family Homelessness Prevention efforts lead by the Office of Housing Stability.
• Coordinate tracking collective efforts to house homeless families and prevent evictions in Boston.
• Support the work of Coordinated Entry and Continuum of Care leadership bodies, as needed, to ensure stakeholder input is incorporated into policy and implementation decisions; prepare periodic reports and updates to track progress of strategic goals and system performance; participate in the annual CoC funding competition.
• Understand other City department roles, identify cross-functional support, and engage necessary departments, such as Boston Public Schools, to accomplish goals.
• Drive strategy and set goals for housing development needed for ending family homelessness.
• Supervises consultants, contractors, and staff as needed,
• Performs related work as required.

• Minimum of four (4) years of experience in policy development; program evaluation and design; stakeholder management, or related professional experience is required, including two (2) years in a project or program management capacity. Additional experience preferred.
• A bachelor’s degree in Policy, Public Administration, Public Health, Business or Social Welfare/Work may be substituted for two (2) years of the required experience.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully implement and operate projects that rely upon multiple stakeholders from the nonprofit, government, and private sectors.
• Excellent negotiation, communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to produce effective policies and procedures, training materials, and presentations.
• Knowledge of public systems of care and resources for homeless populations in Boston and Massachusetts.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office and Google suite.
• Ability to speak and write languages other than English preferred.
• Willingness to work evenings, as well as weekends, throughout the city.
• Ability to exercise good judgment and focus on detail, as required by the job.

Homelessness disproportionately affects people of color, people with disabilities, and other populations; we strongly encourage applications from people who are members of marginalized communities. Preference will be given to candidates who have lived experience relevant to the work.

BOSTON RESIDENCY REQUIRED

Terms: Union/Salary Plan/Grade: SEIU888/N-24

Hours Per Week: 35