Emergency Housing Case Manager - Day Shift

Downtown Emergency Services Center; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Life insurance

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

34 days paid time off per year

Retirement Plan

Job summary

The Downtown Emergency Services Center seeks a Case Manager to provide individualized services to clients to facilitate access to housing. The ideal candidate will assess client needs, establish service plans, and work collaboratively with other agencies.

This position offers a dynamic environment addressing homelessness support and a strong commitment to diversity and equal opportunity.

Qualifications

• Paid or volunteer experience with economically disadvantaged individuals.
• Ability to work with clients displaying a range of behaviors.
• Fluency in Spanish or other relevant language preferred.

Responsibilities

• Assess clients’ needs and facilitate housing placement.
• Establish individualized service plans focused on housing success.
• Collaborate with DESC programs and external agencies.

Skills

Experience with homeless individuals

Ability to work in a Housing First environment

Effective communication

Crisis intervention skills

Cultural competence

Education

Relevant Bachelor’s degree in social work or psychology

Job description

Benefits

Days Off: Saturday, Sunday

Shift: Day (10am - 5:30pm)

Insurance Benefits: Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage), Dental, Life, Long-term Disability

Other Benefits: Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), ORCA card subsidy, Paid Time Off (34 days per year), Retirement Plan

Union Representation: This position is a part of a union and is represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.

About DESC

Recognized nationally as an innovator and leader in developing solutions to homelessness, DESC is a social services organization, supportive housing operator, and licensed behavioral health treatment provider focused on meeting the needs of people experiencing long-term homelessness and living with complex behavioral health and other medical conditions. Approximately 3,000 people are actively receiving services from DESC at any given point in time. Our vision is a community where all people are shown compassion, treated with dignity, and everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.

DESC operates five shelter/emergency housing programs, 19 permanent supportive housing facilities with over 1,750 units, several hundred additional scattered site apartments, and a range of behavioral health services including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment, residential crisis stabilization, street outreach, mobile crisis response, and treatment for opioid use disorder.

Job Definition

Case Managers provide housing-focused, individualized services to clients in order to facilitate access to housing.

Responsibilities

• Utilize current county-wide assessment tool and/or DESC assessment tool to assess clients’ needs, facilitate housing placement, and inform service planning.
• Establish and implement individualized service plans for all clients on caseload, focused on facilitating housing placement and reducing potential barriers to housing success. Incorporate client goals and strengths into service planning.
• Complete progress notes and other required documentation in a timely manner, with attention to established performance outcomes.
• Become familiar with resources, community services and housing options that meet the needs of vulnerable, disabled and homeless adults.
• Become familiar with Rapid Rehousing and assist with enrollment and placement for clients.
• Assertively research housing options, including market‑rate housing.
• Assist with updating, maintaining, and distributing client resource handouts.
• Collaborate with other DESC programs and external agencies for effective provision of client services.
• Work shifts as assigned covering milieu to maintain order and communicate/enforce agency rules.
• Intervene in crises with individual clients and in the shelter milieu generally.
• Register clients and document services provided during shift hours, in accordance with established procedures.
• Actively participate in staff meetings and training sessions.
• May focus on serving a demographic disproportionately affected by homelessness, such as Native Americans and Alaska Natives, African Americans, Latinos, veterans, or elders. Develop related expertise and knowledge of available resources. Provide focused outreach to clients in specialty area.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Paid or volunteer experience working with individuals who are homeless or recently homeless, economically disadvantaged, mentally ill or with substance use disorders.
• Commitment to working in a harm reduction‑oriented, Housing First environment.
• Ability to meet state requirements for registration as an Agency Affiliated Counselor.
• Ability to communicate and work effectively with staff from various backgrounds and disciplines.
• Ability to work effectively with clients displaying a wide range of unpleasant and/or bizarre behavior.
• Subscribe to philosophy of cooperation and continuity across programs and of consideration and respect for clients.

Education & Experience Requirements

1. Relevant Bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, or related behavioral science, OR
2. A combination of 1 year of relevant paid work experience and demonstration of the ability to perform required job duties

*Internal applicants in direct, client facing positions can substitute 6 months of experience in lieu of 1 year

Preferred Qualifications

• Fluency in Spanish or other highly relevant language.
• BA in social or behavioral science.
• Depending on current team needs: preference for work experience, education, and/or lived experience relevant to serving Native Americans or Alaska Natives, African Americans, Latinos, veterans, or elders.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be required sit for long periods of time, communicate with other persons by talking and hearing, required to lift and carry items weighing up to 25 pounds and to operate computer hardware systems. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Equal Opportunity Employer

DESC is committed to diversity in the workplace and promotes equal employment opportunities for all staff members and applicants. The Agency will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, caste, marital status, or the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability in any employment practice, unless based on a bona fide occupational qualification. Minorities and veterans are encouraged to apply.