Senior Program Manager, Newark

The Organization
The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) is a national, nonprofit organization that helps communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness. CSH advances its mission by providing high-quality advice and development expertise, by making loans and grants to supportive housing sponsors, by strengthening the supportive housing industry, and by reforming public policy to make it easier to create and operate supportive housing. 

CSH delivers its core services primarily through ten geographic hubs: California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Southern New England (Connecticut and Rhode Island,) Texas, and Washington, D.C.  (which also covers the City of Baltimore.  CSH also operates targeted initiatives in Maine, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington, and provides limited assistance to many other communities.  

The Position
The Corporation for Supportive Housing is seeking an energetic, results-oriented individual to be part of the  New Jersey CSH hub office.  Under the direction of the Associate Director, New Jersey Program, the Senior Program Manager, will support, strengthen, focus, and document the impact of local systems change work in the City of Newark and the County of Essex.  CSH’s policy and systems change agenda focuses on expanding on the availability, and improving the coordination, of public funding sources for the development and operation of the homeless delivery system, with a special focus on housing for persons experiencing long-term homelessness. 

All of these activities will require consultation and collaboration with CSH staff and, State partners, City and County partners, and other relevant allies and partners, including supportive housing providers.  The Senior Program Manager will work closely with employees throughout the organization to utilize their expertise in various areas as needed.  The Senior Program Manager will have significant program responsibility to provide project-specific assistance, training and capacity building to community-based partners in both the public and private sectors and will work with local and state government to create coordinated financing streams.

Responsibilities
The Senior Program Manager (SPM) will have the following responsibilities:

• Strategic Planning.  The SPM will assist CSH staff and external partners to develop strategic plans for local systems change work, including:
  • Coordinating and leading a systems change environment for Newark that will include leadership; collaborative planning; financial leverage; provider infrastructure, credible data and a network of allies.
  • Determining the need for supportive housing units in the locality – creating a pipeline of 500 additional permanent supportive housing units
  • Assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to funding for supportive housing and other issues that impact the capacity of the locality to develop and maintain supportive housing;
  • Identifying major sources of federal, state, and local funding that are available and those needed to fund costs of capital, operating and supportive services in the locality;
  • Identifying goals and priorities for local policy work.  For example: 
    • increasing or sustaining funding for supportive housing from specific programs 
    • establishing or strengthening systems to streamline and coordinate investments from multiple agencies or programs
    • removing barriers to siting supportive housing project
      
• Coaching and mentoring in systems change practices.  The SPM will provide strategic advice, coaching, and support to CSH staff and local partners and facilitate cross-fertilization of effective approaches to assist in developing and implementing local systems change strategies.
• Implementation of appropriate outreach and engagement systems
• Creation of a single point-of-entry for homeless persons
• Restructuring of the Newark shelter system to include specialized shelters and the rehabilitation of unused shelter beds to permanent housing
• Incorporation of and implementation of a rapid re-housing policy for the City of Newark
  
  
• Delivery of trainings and technical assistance.  The SPM will contribute expertise and deliver training on state and local policy issues. The SPM will also provide technical assistance regarding promising approaches to using Medicaid to pay for services in supportive housing.
• Strengthen the emergency prevention programs to prevent eviction and homelessness
• Coordination of projects and services for those re-entering the community from the criminal justice system
• Coordination of systems prevention (mainstream programs for mental health, substance abuse, TANF, child welfare, institutions)
  
• Development of tools.  Working in tandem with CSH’s Resource Center National Policy unit, the SPM will develop tools and materials designed for audiences of state and local government officials..  For example, tools and materials would:
  
• Make the case for state and local government investments in supportive housing
• Coordinate data management systems that can be analyzed to asses how the homeless interact with mainstream systems or care, the effectiveness of intervention, and the number of homeless people
• The development of a 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness for the City of Newark and the County of Essex
• Describe promising approaches that have been implemented by other local governments
• Document replicable approaches (e.g. collaborative funding announcements or NOFA’s) by providing examples from other localities
• Provide talking points or template letters for CSH and other advocates to use when communicating to state agency leaders, governors, legislatures, etc.
  

The SPM may perform other duties or special projects as directed by the Associate Director and/or Director of the New Jersey HUB. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or advanced degree in related field strongly preferred.  Experience may substitute for education.
• Minimum of six years experience in a non-profit or government position where responsibilities included policy analysis, advocacy, or strategic planning related to low income and supportive housing development and finance, health care, mental health or social services.   Working knowledge of state and local funding streams that can be used to finance operating and/or services costs of supportive housing preferred.  Experience working in (and/or providing direct assistance to) state or local government is strongly preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong organizational, project management, research, and analytic skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with government agencies and community-based organizations.
• Strong computer skills.  Demonstrated proficiency using Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Access and Outlook).
• Familiarity with and/or interest in issues related to supportive housing including homelessness, low-income housing, finance, state and local policies, social service delivery, community development, mental illness, HIV/AIDS, harm reduction, etc.
• Eagerness and ability to manage a diverse set of tasks.
• Skilled in facilitation, team building, forging collaborative partnerships, and developing and maintaining strong relationships within the supportive housing community, and in convening and engaging people from diverse groups and sectors.
• Must have the ability to work independently with minimal supervision, and be able to represent CSH in public forums with a high level of professionalism.
• Ability to function autonomously and exercise solid judgment on a range of issues.

Contact Info:

Alison Recca-Ryan, NJ Director
Corporation for Supportive Housing
650 South Broad Street, 3rd Floor
Trenton, NJ 08611

Resumes should be sent directly to:  alison.recca-ryan@csh.org