Supportive Housing Worker

**SUPPORTIVE HOUSING WORKER**

**North York Supportive Housing for People with Problematic Substance Use and/or Concurrent Disorders Program (NY-PSU)**

**One (1) Bargaining Unit, Permanent Full-Time Position**

**About Cota**

If you're looking to contribute your expertise at a community-based organization making a positive impact in the lives of thousands of people each year - Cota would love to hear from you

We provide a collaborative and inclusive work environment that emphasizes employee support, learning opportunities and excellence in our field. We offer flexible hours and employer-paid benefits for some classifications along with other perks and wellness activities.

For 50 years, Cota has been supporting adults with mental health and cognitive challenges to live well within their community. We provide person-centred support to help individuals find inspiration and hope in themselves, so they are better able to pursue meaningful change in their lives.

To find out more about us and our programs/services and employee benefits please visit our website

**Role Overview**

We are seeking a dynamic and innovative individual who will work enthusiastically to deliver recovery oriented, client and family centered and comprehensive services that meet client needs, ensure client safety and work within a quality improvement framework to identify opportunities for enhancing quality and quantitative outcomes of the services. Client and family centered care is a guiding principle at Cota that helps improve decision making processes, health outcome and client experiences. The successful individual will embed this guiding principle into their work.

**About the Team and **Role Description**

The NY-PSU is an innovative program, operating from a Housing First perspective, and is designed to provide wrap-around supports to individuals who are homeless and who are living with mental health and problematic substance use, to secure and maintain safe and stable housing. The Supportive Housing Worker will be embedded in this team and provide housing coordination to an assigned group of service users within the North York area and work in partnership with those service users to secure and maintain their housing stability. To be successful the Supportive Housing Worker will use a client centred approach, and work with service user to develop independent living skills to maintain housing stability and achieve mental health stability by pursuing their personal recovery.

We are presently recruiting one (1) experienced, dynamic and motivated Supportive Housing Worker to join our interdisciplinary team.

**Summary of Duties**:
The responsibilities of this position include but are not limited to those below:

- Build and maintain positive working relationships with new and existing landlords
- Work collaboratively with landlords to address any tenant related issues or disputes
- Record client status/progress using the appropriate documentation system
- Interact with and support service team to secure new units and maintain units for service users that acquire housing
- Assist with the search for and acquisition of appropriate housing units as may be required within the program
- Support service team to secure new units, manage subsidies and maintain units for service users that acquire housing
- Work in partnership with the service user the develop Housing/Recovery Plans

**Summary of Qualifications**:

- A minimum of a Community College Diploma in a field relevant to the target population. Higher level post-secondary education will be considered an asset
- A minimum of 2 years direct or transferable experience suitable to working effectively with the relevant target population
- Knowledge and appreciation of housing issues as applicable to the target population
- Knowledge of community resources relevant to the target population being served and/or demonstrated ability to search for applicable resources/information
- Knowledge of legislation and regulations including Residential Tenancies Act
- Knowledge of eviction prevention strategies.
- Knowledge of a housing first philosophy.
- Good crisis management and dispute resolution skills
- Good interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written)
- Basic computer literacy (Word, E-mail, Internet)
- Proven ability to develop and implement integrated treatment/housing plans related to relapse prevention and harm reduction in collaboration with other involved service providers
- Experience, alignment and commitment to harm reduction
- Basic understanding of different psychiatric conditions
- Sensitive to challenges experienced by marginalized population groups such as poverty, access issues, mental health and addictions
- Ability to work effectively within a team setting

**Other Requirements and Working Conditions**:

- Conduct visits in the clients' homes, hostels, hospitals and other community settings working in sometimes difficult conditions, including hoarding and pes