DESCRIPTION
The Project:
The Housing Director of Community Solutions’ (CS’) Neighborhood Partnership initiative will lead a collective approach to preventing homelessness in a high-risk neighborhood in North Hartford. The Housing Director will be accountable for convening and supporting a team to stabilize housing conditions. This will involve addressing blight and housing code and asthma-causing housing conditions, preventing evictions and other efforts that may prove necessary to stabilize housing/ prevent homelessness in North Hartford. The project will begin in a targeted area, and be expanded to the entire North Hartford Promise Zone (NHPZ) as the effort is refined and effective approaches to reaching the project’s goals are demonstrated. Meaningful progress by January, 2020 is expected, and specific interim milestones will be set by the Director and Partner network.
The Director will also work with Partnership members on researching and implementing a mechanism to preserve housing affordability and maintenance in the NHPZ. Partners in this effort include Cigna, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, the State of Connecticut, St. Francis Hospital, and UConn along with residents, community organizations, and other stakeholders who are collaborating in the creation of this new approach. This effort is part of the North Hartford Triple Aim Collaborative, of which Community Solutions is founding member.
The housing initiative will focus initially on a targeted area within the Northeast neighborhood of Hartford, a community of nearly 11,000 that has many assets, but is also a “hot spot” of health, economic, and social disparity and unstable housing. Following the prototype phase the most effective approaches will be extended next to the remaining areas of Northeast and to the other NHPZ neighborhoods of Upper Albany and Clay Arsenal. Altogether these three neighborhoods have a combined population of nearly 24,000 residents.
The Position:
Based in Hartford, CT, the Housing Director will supervise a staff of two and will report to the organization’s President. Using a range of tools and approaches to problem solving and effective collaboration, the Director will lead the evolving strategy and oversee the day-to-day work of stabilizing the housing and households within the targeted area of the Northeast neighborhood.
The person in this position will lead the charge towards reducing homelessness, blight, evictions, housing code enforcement violations, and asthma-causing housing conditions then later bring to scale the most effective or promising approaches. Simultaneously, in a parallel and complementary effort, sh/e will research mechanisms for preserving housing affordability and maintenance and begin implementation of the selected strategies.
The Housing Director will collaborate with Community Solutions’ Built for Zero team in their push to end chronic and veteran homelessness, testing and sharing strategies to prevent homelessness that can be passed on to other communities. S/he will also support Community Solutions’ Real Estate team’s engagement in the development and operations of the Swift Factory as a neighborhood health and employment anchor.
Finally, the Housing Director will manage the Hartford office of Community Solutions, including overseeing the office’s budget.
The Person:
You, our successful applicant, are an experienced leader, who can easily develop relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds. You have experience in working on the ground in communities, facilitating collective problem-solving, and analyzing and synthesizing data. You also demonstrate a high level of empathy and flexibility, which will be critical to ensuring successful collaboration with partnering organizations.
You will have a track record and tenure of successful implementation experience, with proven ability to turn ideas into action and deliver visible change. The role requires a leader who can mobilize partners and local residents around new approaches to problems, prototype these approaches quickly, leverage performance data to evaluate and course correct in real time, and bring effective or promising approaches to scale.
The following competencies and skill sets are integral to the role:
–Experience in leading housing/community rehabilitation, particularly quality improvement or blight remediation initiatives.
–Experience in development or management of land trusts, their legal and/or operational structures, of cooperative or homeowner associations or similar governance entities
–Knowledgeable about neighborhoods/communities and the policy and operational challenges of managing people and places;
–Can handle multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment and shift easily between various responsibilities with diverse stakeholders;
–An experienced implementer who has successfully led teams and worked on complex problems;
–A systems level thinker with experience working with communities or networks;
–A design thinker
Is inspired by people. Is able to leverage both informal and formal methods for gathering actionable insight into the needs, motivations, desires, and behaviors of the people. Remains grounded in real evidence of people’s needs and behaviors and uses this insight to drive and anchor decision-making.
Embraces constraints. Is optimistic about the possibilities of using existing resources to achieve new outcomes through process improvement, optimization, and creative design.
An ability to guide new approaches to employment and improving population health at neighborhood levels using these principles and achieve superior results;
–Comfortable with data
Gathers and leverages actionable data; does not wait for perfect information before taking action;
Uses performance data to drive iterative change;
Privileges data over relationships, convention or gut assumptions in decision making
–Is an excellent team builder
Works with multiple partners and manages varied interests comfortably;
Facilitates teams actively toward clear goals rather than simply adjusting to the temperature of the room;
Workshops a plan, but does not wait for perfect consensus;
Moves forward with whatever allies are willing to come along;
Views conflict productively; does not shy away from heat or avoid difficult interactions.
Excellent communication skills, both interpersonal and written
–Exercises excellent independent judgment and ownership of decisions
–Receives and relays criticism constructively
–Able to cope with and embrace change, risk, and uncertainty
–Able to embrace and actively support the unique culture and values of Community Solutions
–Familiarity with Hartford/the North Hartford community preferred
Equipment /Software/Other Used:
Google Business Apps
Microsoft Office Apps
Zoom video conferencing software
GIS software
Salesforce
About Community Solutions:
We are a hardworking team of social problem solvers working to end homelessness and the conditions that create it. We help communities use problem-solving tools, like design thinking and quality improvement, to tackle the hardest and most complex social challenges. Since 2011, we’ve helped US communities find homes for more than 170,000 homeless Americans at a taxpayer savings of more than $2 billion. Our work has been featured on 60 Minutes and recognized by the White House, the United Nations and the Smithsonian.
HOW TO APPLY
By July 31, submit a cover letter and resume to jobs@community.solutions. Please put the job title in the subject line of the email.
BENEFITS
Excellent benefits, including 25 days of PTO for new employees and 13 holidays.