Housing Support Worker

The purpose of this position is:
Under the direction of the Mental Health and Wellness Manager (and in their absence the Health and Family Services Director), the Housing Support Worker is responsible to provide case management services. They will work with Curve Lake members and their household members who are homeless and at risk of homelessness in Curve Lake First Nation and the Peterborough City/ County region to support them in establishing and maintaining appropriate safe housing and/ or shelter. The Housing Support Worker will provide service referrals, advocacy, and accompaniment to clients to connect them to appropriate housing as well as other agencies, housing providers, and support services within and outside of Curve Lake First Nation and Peterborough region. The Housing Support Worker will administer financial supplements which can be used for emergency housing needs or as a rental supplement within the guidelines established.

**DUTIES**:
The duties and responsibilities of this position are categorized into four main functions:

- Outreach and Advocacy
- Provide case management services to increase the continuum of and access to housing, care, and support services.
- Connect chronically and episodically homeless individuals to services through assisted referrals, accompaniment, and transportation where necessary
- Provide information, referral, and advocacy to individuals in such areas as income assistance, housing, health services, drug & alcohol treatment and recovery, counseling, and education
- Assists clients through the referral processes to internal and external services such as housing counseling, legal aid, education, etc. to ensure successful transfer of services and may attend associated appointments with the client(s) when appropriate
- Develops and maintains positive relationships with landlords, housing providers, including rooming houses and RGI providers to assist clients in accessing and maintaining housing.
- Advocates on behalf of clients with landlords, housing providers, and other program supports
- Case Management
- Complete intakes and discharge of clients
- Ensure confidentiality of all clients (past and present) is maintained
- Provide appropriate one on one support to assist clients
- Identify and consult on accessing special programs as required
- Monitor, motivate and assist clients to meet their goals
- Participate in case meetings as applicable
- Assist clients in understanding budgeting and ensuring sustainability of housing choices
- Administration and Reporting
- Administers Housing rental supplement/ emergency housing support funding within the parameters established
- Ensure client files are maintained and updated on a regular basic and stored appropriately in secure/safe manner in accordance to policy and procedures
- Data collection, submission of reports, maintenance of program statistics for purposes of evaluation, research, and program funding reporting requirements
- Prepare, present/submit bi-monthly oral and written program reports to Health and Family Services Manager or as required
- Provides statistics and relevant data that will support fund development activities for the program
- Actively participate as a team member with the health and social services staff to improve the overall health and wellness of the community
- Related and Other Duties
- Maintain accessible housing listings
- Develop and facilitate educational workshops and programming related to housing issues
- Attend regular case management and Mental Health and Crisis team meeting to provide updates on the status of the program
- Maintain client and patient files and information
- Special projects, assigned tasks and additional regular duties as require by your supervisor

**QUALIFICATIONS: (APPLICANTS MUST SHOW NECESSARY PROOF WITH APPLICATION OR WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SCREENED OUT)**

**EDUCATION**:

- Minimum 2 years directly related work experience providing clinical case management
- At minimum a College diploma in Social Services or related field with minimum 2 years related work experience, education and training may be considered

**RATED REQUIREMENTS**:
**Knowledge, Skills & Abilities**:

- Thorough knowledge and understanding of First Nation history and culture
- Knowledge of Curve Lake First Nation resources and area agency resources for referral purposes
- Excellent interpersonal and counselling skills to work with a diverse client group
- Possess good time management, written and verbal communication skills, exercise good judgement
- Ability to instruct clients in relevant programs
- Experience and/or knowledge of report writing and file maintenance
- Analytical ability and effective problem-solving skills in assessing client needs
- Crisis intervention abilities (ingenuity and resourcefulness in developing alternative strategies to meet individualized programming)
- Behavioural management skills
- Demonstrated ability to model social skills
- Demonstrated ability to adv