The Your Way Home Homeless Prevention Programs Manager works in coordination with health, housing, and human service providers, as well as community partners including landlords, municipalities, police departments, and faith organizations, to prevent homelessness for Montgomery County residents. This position oversees evidence-informed strategies to preventing homelessness as outlined in the Your Way Home report, "Unlocking Doors to Homelessness Prevention." These include the equitable & targeted Emergency Rent & Utility Coalition (ERUC), the court-based Eviction Prevention & Intervention Coalition (EPIC), and school-based initiatives. Your Way Home is committed to advancing equitable access and outcomes for all residents through Housing First, trauma-informed, and coordinated services from entry to exit. The Homeless Prevention Programs Manager is responsible for managing the homeless prevention provider network, including both County contracted service providers and other providers funded through philanthropic funders collaborative in partnership with The Montgomery County Foundation, Inc. The Homeless Prevention Programs Manager actively works to ensure consistency and continuity by creating, maintaining, and training providers in Written Standards aligned with funding requirements and national best practices. The Homeless Prevention Programs Manager is also a client advocate but does not provide any direct services but is responsible for centering the voices of those with lived expertise of the experience of housing instability or homelessness. The Homeless Prevention Programs Manager is also responsible for framing equity and working to reduce racial disparities found in the homeless crisis response system. Finally, the Homeless Prevention Programs Manager is a core member of the Your Way Home Operations Team within the Office of Housing and Community Development, working with other team members to ensure that the experience of homelessness in Montgomery County is rare, brief, and a one-time-only experience.

1. Coordinate and manage the Emergency Rent & Utility Coalition (ERUC)
Maximize the implementation and success of ERUC in providing effective and equitably targeted emergency rent and utility services to persons who are at risk of homeless in Montgomery County and/or have had a recent financial crisis caused by COVID-19 health crisis, job loss, pay inequality, or underemployment.

• Commitment to advancing racial and social equity through ERUC policies and procedures;
• Chair the ERUC Coalition meetings, helping to raise public and policymaker awareness of the needs of low-income and ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families and individuals in Montgomery County;

• Create all intake forms, equitable & inclusive prioritization policies, and procedures for the program. This includes regular monitoring of ERUC non-profit providers to ensure compliance with Federal funding sources, including HUD Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), Continuum of Care (CoC), U.S. Department of Treasury dollars, and other public or private funding sources;
• Supervise the operation of ERUC partner agencies and providers to assure compassion for consumers, efficiency in operations, equity in access and outcomes, and the appropriate housing stabilization of individuals and families;
• Regular on-site monitoring of contracted partner agencies/providers and inspection of client files to assure integrity to the policies and procedures, including adherence to County contracts and performance measures;
• Encourage agency/provider participation in appropriate training and seminars. Follow-through with staff in reinforcing new skills;
• Foster open lines of communication among partner agency staff;
• Address all ERUC consumer complaints in a timely manner. Follow-through with consumers and providers to ensure that issues are resolved;

• Produce monthly reports of program outcome data for distribution, as well as identify and correct data entry errors in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which tracks outcomes and performance.

• Commitment to advancing racial and social equity through EPIC policies and procedures;

• Chair the EPIC Action Team meetings with all EPIC partners, helping to ensure collaboration and coordination among partners including Montgomery County Court Administration, Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Montgomery Bar Association, participating Magisterial District Courts, Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities, and others;

• Create all intake forms, equitable & inclusive prioritization policies, and procedures for the program. This includes regular monitoring of EPIC non-profit providers to ensure compliance with Federal funding sources, including HUD Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), Continuum of Care (CoC), U.S. Department of Treasury dollars, and other public or private funding sources;

• Encourage agency/provider participation in appropriate trainings and seminars. Follow-through with staff in reinforcing new skills;
• Work collaboratively with advocacy partners in expanding the scope of landlord-tenant diversion mediation techniques throughout Montgomery County, ensuring housing stabilization and eviction prevention throughout the County;

• Foster open lines of communication among partner agency staff;

• Address all client complaints in a timely manner. Follow-through with clients and providers to ensure that issues are resolved;
• Continue to grow the EPIC program from its current scope of 7 courts to the remaining Magisterial District Courts in the county. This will be done through advocacy and fundraising.

• Commitment to advancing racial and social equity through Your Way Home's policies and procedures.* Build relationships with Montgomery County public school districts to better understand and document the needs of families with school-aged children experiencing homelessness as defined under McKinney-Vento Law.* Create all intake forms, equitable & inclusive prioritization policies, and procedures for the program.* Raise public and private funding to advance the project from a pilot to bring the program to scale.* Encourage agency/provide participation in appropriate Your Way Home collaboration, trainings and seminars. Follow-through with staff, McKinney-Vento liaisons, and others in reinforcing new housing stabilization skills.* Foster open lines of communication between school districts and Your Way Home partner agency staff.

• Produce monthly reports of referral outcomes data for distribution;

• Perform monthly review of relevant information from referral data;

• Identify and correct data entry errors related to referral outcomes. Follow-through with staff in reinforcing correct data entry procedures for referrals.
• Encourage participation in intake, assessment, and referral training. Follow-through with staff in reinforcing skills;
• Assist the Your Way Home Data Manager and Your Way Home Community Relations Manager in communicating homeless prevention needs and outcomes present in Montgomery County.

• Write for, manage, and report on public and private funding grant sources that support Homeless Prevention activities and similar programs coordinated under Your Way Home;

• Communicate regularly with funders and philanthropy to recruit new grants;
• Collaborate with other systems of care to develop braided funding streams for Housing as a Social Determinant of Health.

• Engage landlords and property managers with Your Way Home's breadth of housing stabilization programs;
• Work with collaborative partners to increase housing affordability opportunities within Montgomery County;
• Develop relationships with employment and job training programs, and connect Homeless Prevention Program participants with these economic opportunities;
• Educate Your Way Home Homeless Prevention programs and housing stabilization programs on tenant rights and fair housing protections;
• Other duties as assigned.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Qualifications

• Completion of a bachelor's degree program at an accredited college or university, preferably in the field of social work, public administration, administration, or other human services. Master's degree in Social Work or a related field is preferred, or lived experience of homelessness or housing instability;
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in program development, program management, policy development, systems and procedures analysis in a business, nonprofit or governmental organization;
• Ability to manage multiple projects and timelines;
• Familiarity, understanding, and knowledge of Housing First, Homeless Prevention Housing Stabilization, and Rapid Re-Housing;
• Self-directed and requiring minimal supervision with the ability to meet broad objectives with 'built-in' expertise;
• Professional writing skills, and the ability to communicate with all levels of management, staff, and external clients;
• Organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work with tight deadlines in an ever-changing environment;
• Familiarity and/or experience with HMIS systems and grant funded programs;
• Commitment to outcomes-based performance and learning for continual quality improvement;
• Previous work in affordable housing, homelessness, or other housing-related industry.

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 essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; sit; talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands or arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and depth perception.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential function. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.