Temporary Housing Retention Specialist

DESC (Downtown Emergency Service Center); Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 54,000 - 59,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Dental

Life

Long-term Disability

Medical (no premiums/payroll deduction

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

ORCA card subsidy

Paid Time Off (34 days per year)

Retirement Plan

Job summary

DESC (Downtown Emergency Service Center) in Seattle, WA, is hiring two Housing Retention Specialists for a 12-month temporary assignment. The role focuses on direct, short-term behavioral coaching to help tenants overcome tenancy barriers, with emphasis on benefits navigation and housing stability.

The position supports site staff within DESC’s Unit Condition Response Team, collaborating across teams to improve housing retention and tenant engagement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, or related behavioral science.
• 1 year of relevant paid work experience (or equivalent demonstrated ability).
• Experience with homeless or formerly homeless adults and related services is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a mobile cross-site specialist within an integrated care team to address housing challenges.
• Co-deploy into high-acuity units to provide safety and intensive support.
• Provide short-term, in-unit coaching to improve independent living skills.
• Apply trauma-informed, harm-reduction approaches to support tenants and reduce risks.
• Assist in implementing ISP/Housing Retention and Stability Plan goals.
• Support benefit navigation, including Medicaid/ABD/SSI/SSDI and renewals.

Skills

Diverse population communication

Crisis de-escalation

Behavioral health awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, or related behavioral science

1 year of relevant paid work experience

Job description

Job Type
Full-time, Temporary
Description
Days Off: Saturday, Sunday
Shift: Day (8:30am - 5:00pm)

Insurance Benefits:

• Dental
• Life
• Long-term Disability
• Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage)

Other Benefits:

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

This is a temporary position that is expected to last 12 months. We will be hiring for 2 Housing Retention Specialists.

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 OVERVIEW

Are you a creative problem-solver who thrives on direct engagement, active teamwork, and seeing tangible, long-term results? Do you want to step away from the burden of traditional, high-caseload paperwork and focus on deep, impactful, one-on-one breakthrough work?
The Housing Retention Specialist (HRS) is an innovative, high-impact role operating within DESC’s specialized Unit Condition Response Team (UCRT). This temporary, 12-month position serves as a zone-deployed team designed to step in alongside site-based staff Clinical Support Specialist and Housing Stabilization Specialist during a building’s most critical housing stability milestones. Rather than managing a caseload of individuals, the HRS provides intensive, short-term, side-by-side behavioral coaching to help residents overcome complex tenancy barriers, such as severe mental health/substance use issues, hoarding behaviors, benefits navigation and imminent eviction risks.
Working as part of a dynamic, co-deployment team, the HRS provides added support to housing staff and tenants by improving apartment conditions, strengthening housing retention, increasing tenant engagement, enhancing inspection readiness, building independent living skills, and assisting residents with benefit and entitlement navigation that supports long-term housing stability. This position is ideal for an independent, resilient professional looking to sharpen their clinical intervention skills, work collaboratively in a highly supportive environment, and directly prevent possible housing loss in real-time.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as a mobile, cross-site specialist within an integrated care team, partnering directly with onsite HSS and CSS staff to address high-acuity housing challenges through collaborative, multi-person interventions.
• Co-deploy into high-acuity residential units alongside onsite staff to provide a necessary second person for safety, pacing, and intensive unit remediation support for severe clutter, hoarding, biohazard concerns, or other housing retention crises.
• Deliver focused, short-term, in-unit independent living skills coaching, partnering directly with residents to model organization, routine tracking, safe household practices, and clutter-mitigation techniques that preserve housing stability and lease compliance.
• Utilize trauma-informed, harm-reduction, and de-escalation approaches to support tenants experiencing extreme clutter, hoarding behaviors, or other barriers to housing retention while reducing immediate fire, life, and safety risks.
• In close collaboration with the resident and their site-based HSS/CSS team, assist in implementing goals established in the tenant's Integrated Service Plan (ISP) and, when applicable, their Housing Retention and Stability Plan.
• Provide intensive support with public benefits acquisition, retention, and troubleshooting, including Medicaid enrollment and renewal, ABD applications and recertifications, SSI/SSDI application support, appeals, document gathering, and coordination with benefit specialists and community partners. Assist tenants in addressing benefit interruptions, accessing income supports, and navigating service systems that are critical to maintaining housing stability.
• Support tenants with budgeting, income stabilization planning, document management, and housing transition planning to strengthen long-term housing retention and self-sufficiency.
• Identify barriers to income and healthcare access and provide hands-on assistance with obtaining and maintaining benefits, healthcare coverage, and other entitlement programs that support successful tenancy.
• Design and facilitate voluntary activities, skill-building workshops, tenant meetings, and neighborhood outings that reduce isolation, promote community engagement, and reinforce independent living skills in partnership with onsite staff.
• Complete timely documentation of client interactions, assessments, and interventions in accordance with agency standards.
• Participate in UCRT staff meetings, PSH site care coordination meetings, and agency trainings.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Ability to meet Washington Department of Health requirements for registration as a Registered Agency Affiliated Counselor (AAC) or any other superseding credential
• Relevant bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, or related behavioral science; OR 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.
• Experience working with formerly homeless adults disabled by co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
• Knowledge of local homeless, mental health, and substance use disorder service systems.
• Knowledge of Washington State public benefit programs, including ABD, SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, Medicare, and other income-support resources.
• Ability to communicate and work effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to work effectively with clients displaying a wide range of unpleasant, intense, and/or bizarre behavior.
• Commitment to the philosophy of cooperation and continuity across agency programs and of consideration and respect for clients.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Two years’ experience working with homeless or formerly homeless adults disabled by severe & persistent mental health and substance use challenges.
• Demonstrated professional, volunteer, or lived experience with hoarding mitigation, clutter management, or intensive independent living skills coaching.
• Ability to drive an agency vehicle to conduct agency-related business, which requires a current Washington State driver's license and insurable driving record.
• Experience assisting individuals with benefit and entitlement navigation, including Medicaid, SSI/SSDI, ABD, food assistance, or other income and healthcare supports.
• Knowledge of household pests and proper mitigation strategies.

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 employees by talking and hearing, required to lift and carry items weighing up to 40 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.

Salary Description

$39.08 - $43.15 per hour