Veteran’s Housing Support and Housing Liaison

**Veteran’s Housing Support and Housing Liaison**
**(Veteran’s Scattered-Site Supportive Housing - Reconciliation & Equity-Focused - VSSSH-REF)**

**Program**:Ending Veteran’s Homelessness - Reconciliation and Equity Focus

**Reports to**: Executive Director, receives supervision from Manager of Addiction Services

**Positions Available**:1 full-time (35 hours per week)

**About Porchlight Counselling and Addictions Services**

For 84 years, Porchlight Counselling and Addictions Services has been supporting our community with counselling, building healthy relationships, community engagement, addictions services, and targeted supportive housing. We want everyone to have access to affordable, caring, person-centred, trauma-informed, culturally appropriate supports that meet their unique needs. Our vision is for a community where there is equality, respect, empathy, and inclusion, and this is why we get up in the morning and do the work that we do.

Our team enjoys working collaboratively and we strive to value each other, because we know people are our most important resource. Our staff and volunteers work to support each other and value a healthy work-life balance. We see our clients as people first and aspire to walk alongside them towards growth and healing. We invest in our staff and work to support their growth as both individuals and team members.

While our team has a history of providing supportive housing for people in addiction recovery, the Ending Veteran’s Homelessness - Reconciliation and Equity Focus is a new program funded by the Government of Canada and administered by the Region of Waterloo. This multi-agency partnership will support veterans experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region to access the supports needed to move them in to permanent housing. Porchlight, in partnership with ACCKWA, will focus on finding veterans from equity-deserving groups, work with landlords to arrange appropriate housing, and support individuals to stay housed.

That’s where you come in.

**Areas of Professional Responsibility**:
This program exists to support participants to break the cycle of homelessness and transition to long-term stabilization in permanent housing. It is the intent of this service to utilize a relational model of holistic engagement to determine how to appropriately support the individuals and their communities. This is a dual role, providing service to landlords as a Housing Liaison, and providing supports to participants as a Housing Support Worker.
- The VSSSH-REF will recruit and provide responsive, flexible service to landlords. As the landlord liaison, you will work to find units that are appropriate and suitable that match the racial and intersectional diversity of the program participants.
- Negotiate lease conditions and rental rates, including arranging rent subsidies.
- Identify and build relationships with veterans experiencing homelessness from equity-deserving groups (veterans who are women, Indigenous or racialized, 2SLGBTQ2IA+, living with a disability).
- Match participants to housing units via a process to be developed in collaboration with The Region and the Veteran Program Coordinator.
- Once housed, provide participants supports to stay housed that are appropriate to their needs and their communities, with assistance from Veteran’s specific Housing Support Workers, external Veteran’s supporting services and other non-Veteran specific community services where applicable, appropriate, and available.
- Provide varying terms of support according to level of need and acuity.
- Abide by the relevant Housing Stability System Frameworks and approaches including but not limited to: Prioritized Access to Housing Support (PATHS) Framework, Guidelines, Protocols; Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) - Supportive Housing Program Standards; Housing First Approach and Human Rights-Based Principles; The Service Prioritization and Decision Assistance Tool (SPDAT), the common assessment tool used to assess the strengths and vulnerabilities of people experiencing homelessness as related to housing stability or another standard, evidence-based tool implemented through the Region of Waterloo.
- Complete administrative duties as it relates to the preparation/process and evaluation of the program
- Participate in collaborative team meetings, including staff meetings and supervision
- Be available to share an on-call schedule
- Exhibit a thorough knowledge of agency policies and procedure as well as applicable program funders and their requirements
- Other responsibilities as mutually agreed upon with the Supervisor and/or Executive Director

**Qualifications**:

- Relevant educational background that will support you in this role, such as social work or other human services, and/or significant experience in the field
- Experience working with people experiencing homelessness
- Experience and strong understanding of serving people from diverse backgrounds and vuln