Senior Director of Permanent Supportive Housing

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior Director of Permanent Supportive Housing (SDPSH) provides senior leadership and vision to onsite Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) teams emphasizing a commitment to supporting the safety and well-being of residents. The SDPSH directly supervises their assigned Site Directors (SDs) and ensures that there is a continuity of services that fosters community, promotes housing stability, complies with lease and funder requirements, and exercises sound financial management. The SDPSH is part of the dept leadership team, collectively developing and operating Plymouth Housing, and collaborating with other directors and the Senior Director of Quality Assurance in order to develop low barrier policy and procedures that support tenant housing stability. With other members of the leadership team, SDPSH is responsible for ensuring that Plymouth provides fair housing as well as high-quality services in a culturally proficient way based on the values inherent in Plymouth’s mission, the principles of cultural proficiency, the tenets of harm reduction and trauma-informed care, and the ‘housing first’ philosophy. 

This is a regular, full-time benefitted position. 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

(Responsibilities, accountabilities, and competencies; may not include all duties of this job)

Leadership and Teamwork

• Ensures high quality services and programs that promote housing stability, adherence to policies and procedures, adequate staffing models, sound financial management, and compliance with funder requirements.
• Identifies service gaps and recommends program and policy options for addressing unmet needs; partners with Senior Director of Quality Assurance to develop or update policies and protocols.
• Works collaboratively with the rest of the PSH team to promote consistency, sharing of emerging practices, innovative problem solving, and organizational learning. 
• Ensures strong trauma informed behavioral health practices are practices in assigned buildings; collaborates with the Behavioral Health team to integrate behavioral health services into building team practices.

• Works with Property Management to ensure that Plymouth’s properties are responsibly managed, residents are outreached with support services, buildings are safe and well-maintained, operations are compliant with applicable contractual or regulatory requirements, revenue is maximized, and expenses minimized. 

• Practices a cooperative work approach and promotes a collaborative culture among staff and co-workers.
• Promotes on-going training and support around PSH best practices.

• Participates in Plymouth committees and workgroups as appropriate.

Supervisory

• Supervises and supports Site Directors; hires, orients, mentors, trains, evaluates and when necessary, disciplines staff. 

• Empowers direct reports to lead their teams with confidence. 
• Establishes clear expectations for direct reports’ individual performance and outcomes consistent with strategic organizational goals and holds staff accountable for meeting expectations. 
• Provides ongoing coaching, leadership development, and supports professional growth to Site Directors, both individually and as a team. 

• Develops staff competency and commitment to principles of housing first, harm reduction, trauma-informed care, and relationship-based care.

• Serves as back up and ensures continuity of the PSH function and service in times of staff absence. 

Tenant and Community Relations

• Ensures that Site Directors and their staff work cooperatively with behavioral health components and Providers to assist residents in reaching emotional wellness and stability.  
• Develops and maintains a basic knowledge of Seattle landlord-tenant laws. 
• Ensures daily log entries, case notes, incident reports, and grievance documents are accurately recorded in tenant information database, and stay updated on issues, trends, urgent needs, and matters needing immediate attention.

• Offers guidance and support for handling crisis intervention, conflict mediation among residents, and investigation of resident complaints and concerns.

• Establishes positive and supportive resident relationships, working collaboratively, communicating timely and effectively, resolving problems directly, constructively, and according to the tenets of housing first, trauma-informed care, and harm reduction. 
• Promotes a professional trusting tenant/staff relationship wherein tenants are encouraged to provide honest feedback regarding their housing and staff interactions
• Maintains high standards of customer service; and makes sure tenant rights are maintained, including access to tenant grievance process and response to feedback from the annual tenant survey.

• Follows Plymouth eviction policies and works with team to explore all possible alternatives have been exhausted before evicting a resident that will result in a return to homelessness.

• Maintains strong external relationships to support tenant success and negotiate agreements with partner agencies to enhance on-site services delivered by set-aside partners and other entities involved in the care of Plymouth residents.

• Participates in local, regional, and state-wide task forces, committees, coalitions, and projects, as assigned.

Safety and Security

• Ensures Site Directors are providing a safe, sanitary environment, maintaining 24-hour a day security in the buildings for tenants and staff, including appropriate response to allegations of hate speech.

• Participates in the rotation for after-hours on-call responsibilities. When on-call responds to emergency calls within 20 minutes and makes sure appropriate action is taken, and if in-person response is needed an arrival time on site within 70 minutes.
• Reviews the management response and follow-up to incident reports to determine appropriateness and consistency with agency protocols.

Financial and Compliance

• Reviews and approves credit card expense reports and timesheets for direct reports to ensure accuracy and adherence to Plymouth protocols

• Collaborates with the Site Directors annually to create draft operating budgets for each property. 
• Monitors building monthly financial statements and to ensure Site Directors are keeping expenses within budget and unplanned expenses are discussed with the Vice President of Supportive .
• Supports Site Directors in collaborating with Plymouth’s Property Management and Compliance department for annual recertification of tenant income.

• Ensures accountability for responsiveness and follow-through on information requests that comply with lease and funder requirements.

ESSENTIAL JOB QUALIFICATIONS

(Any equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and experience):

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Services or related field or a combination of an equal combination of education and relevant work experience. 

Experience: 

Minimum of five (5) years relevant and progressively responsible leadership experience providing permanent supportive housing and services to low-income residents and people experiencing homelessness, people with disabilities, and people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. 

Minimum three (3) years supervisory and management experience.

Licensing Requirements:  Valid Washington State Driver license with fully insurable driving record   

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Committed to working toward diversity, equity, and inclusion in providing services to tenants and working with Plymouth staff. Able to communicate and work effectively with a diverse group of voices in support of Plymouth’s goal of being an anti-racist organization.
• Demonstrated passion for in Plymouth’s mission in ending homelessness.
• Ability to develop and sustain successful relationships with community organizations.
• Highly organized with ability to prioritize effectively and meet deadlines in a professional manner. Meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate and work effectively under stressful conditions with people who are economically disadvantaged, mentally ill or chemically affected, including people who have experienced significant trauma, are economically disadvantaged, and impacted by multiple morbidities, including behavioral health challenges.
• Demonstrated group training and facilitation experience.
• Familiarity with quality assurance practices and reporting to public and private funders. 
• Ability to arrive at Downtown Seattle buildings within 70 minutes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. 
• Proficient and experienced with Microsoft Office applications, particularly Word, Excel, and Outlook.  Must be able to work efficiently and effectively with customized databases and technology, and conduct Internet research.

Desired Qualifications: 

• Experience using a client information database for grant compliance and management reporting is desired.  
• Experience supervising a unionized workforce is desired. 
• Experience in Case Management is desired.
• Knowledge of Property Management or Permanent Supportive Housing is desired.