Community Affairs Intern

Position Title: Community Affairs Intern

Department: Community Affairs

Who we are: The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) is one of the Nation’s preeminent Housing Finance Agencies and one of the State’s ten largest financial institutions. Our mission is to finance the creation and preservation of affordable housing across the state. IHDA oversees more than 20 federal and state programs on behalf of the state of Illinois and serves as one of the state’s primary resources for housing policy and program administration. For over 50 years, IHDA has led the state in financing and supporting affordable housing.

At IHDA we strive to create and maintain a work environment that promotes diversity, recognition and inclusion. IHDA is committed to hiring and investing in individuals of diverse talents and backgrounds to ensure a range of perspectives and experiences inform and guide our work of financing affordable housing in the state of Illinois.

Summary: The Community Affairs Department supports IHDA’s mission of financing the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Illinois through overseeing various programs to promote and establish financially stable households and communities. The department collaborates with external partners, which include units of local government, HUD-certified housing counseling agencies, community-based organizations, community action agencies, regional planning commissions, and land banks.

The department is responsible for the ongoing management of these programs, which includes program design and launch, creating funding applications, conducting analysis and scoring, making funding recommendations, overseeing program closures, providing technical assistance, disbursing funds, reporting, reviewing files, conducting site visits, and ensuring compliance.

Responsibilities:

• Assist with the comprehensive review of existing department data resources, tools, and analysis methods to identify areas for practical improvement. Assist with data and records maintenance, useful tools or analysis infrastructure creation, and data-focused policies and procedures.
• As directed assist with special projects for the department’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, housing counseling, and community revitalization funding programs.
• Assist with analyzing programmatic data and records to produce visualization and narrative documentation such as reports, memos, handouts, charts, tables, graphs, maps, presentations, etc.
• Review department policies, procedures, process guides, etc, to identify potential improvements or clarification. If necessary, prepare supplemental materials to improve user comprehension of the existing documents.
• Perform other duties as assigned, and as required, attend any listening sessions, networking events, public presentations, or other work functions which correspond to the work in Community Affairs.
  
  
  

Experience:

Must be an active college student in good academic standing in an accredited college or university in Illinois. Must be pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in urban planning, Public Policy, Administration, Finance, Business or related field. Needs strong abilities to prepare and analyze data. Excellent analytical, technical, research, written, and verbal communication skills. Polished presentation skills. Highly organized, efficient, self-motivated, and detail oriented. Excellent computer skills, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. GIS mapping skills and other graphic and design skills are a plus.

IHDA’s Summer Internship Program Highlights:

• Paid Internship
• Open to college students (must be an actively enrolled undergraduate or graduate student at the time of applying)
• Full-time hybrid internship program that runs from June – August (typically 10 weeks)
• You will receive on-the-job training from industry experts
• Participate in workshops to gain insight on key departments at the Authority
• Participate in IHDA’s Mentorship Program
• Attend outings to connect with fellow interns
  
  
  

EOE