COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER - EMERGENCY APPOINTMENT (HOMELESSNESS)

About the role

The LA County Board of Supervisors recently declared a local state of emergency for homelessness, and the County is working to revise and expand our response to help all who are affected. We are looking for qualified and passionate individuals to help us in the mission of addressing issues like housing, mental health, and substance use.

Responsibilities

• Drafts client interviews and collects documentation in the field to assess housing needs, barriers, risk factors impacting client safety and stability, health, mental health, family, social, educational, and employment information, and eligibility for emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent housing, and supportive services.
• Identifies areas with growing or large encampment sites and conducts encampment resolutions.
• Receives and responds to referrals related to homelessness, and related health, mental health, and social service needs from County staff, partner agencies, and community-based organizations.
• Collaborates with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to conduct joint outreach to individuals experiencing homelessness.
• Affords support to homeless or housing-insecure clients by coordinating access to emergency shelters, motel vouchers, eviction prevention resources, and other immediate supports.
• Responds to urgent housing needs with a focus on safety, stabilization, and rapid connection to services.
• Serves as a liaison between clients, the agency, and community partners as it relates to homelessness and service coordination, by participating in meetings and providing written updates, as needed.
• Maintains current and accurate data on county-approved databases, such as the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
• Updates spreadsheets containing various client information.
• Communicates updates on engagements and outreach efforts through email to upper management and other stakeholders.
• Transports clients and their belongings to and from housing and/or medically-related appointments, as needed.

Requirements

• Six (6) months of full-time work experience providing direct, client-facing and field-based support to individuals or community groups experiencing homelessness on behalf of Los Angeles County.
• You MUST meet the above requirement(s) in order to be appointed to fill any vacancies related to this recruitment.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience working in an agency such as Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s (LAHSA) participating on multidisciplinary, integrated, street-based outreach teams delivering homelessness response services on behalf of Los Angeles County, including engagement, housing navigation, coordinated entry, and connection to supportive services.
• Experience working in LAHSA’s Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) or Homeless Engagement Teams (HET).
• Experience with coordinated service models that align housing, behavioral health, and supportive services across multiple providers in complex, multi-agency environments.
• Certification in the following areas of training conducted by LAHSA: Field Safety, De-escalation strategies, Homeless Engagement techniques, Trauma-informed Care, Motivational Interviewing, Harm Reduction, Housing First, Cultural Humility, Mental Health 101, Substance Use Disorders, Coordinated Entry System, Accessing system resources / System Navigation.
• Experience driving unhoused or housing-insecure clients to supportive service, medical, document, Department of Public Social Services, and interim housing placement appointments.
• Experience developing reports for field activities.
• Experience establishing ongoing rapport and engagement with challenging personalities during outreach encounters.
• Experience working with a dual agency framework (city and county agencies).
• Experience participating in various encampment resolution operations, including multi-jurisdictional responses to address encampments, such as RV encampments, in city or county initiated efforts (Encampment protocols or Pathway Home Encampment resolutions).

Physical Class

• Physical Class II – Light: This class includes administrative and clerical positions requiring light physical effort that may include occasional light lifting to a 10-pound limit and some bending, stooping, or squatting. Considerable ambulation may be involved.
• Physical Class III – Moderate: This class requires that the incumbent stand or walk most of the time with bending, stooping, squatting, twisting, reaching, working on irregular surfaces, occasional lifting of objects weighing over 25 pounds, and frequent lifting of 10-25 pounds.

Application and Filing Information

Applications must be filed online only and will be reviewed for interview consideration on an ongoing basis. If you have not been contacted within 60 days and the recruitment remains open or reopens for filing, we encourage you to submit a new application. This will allow you to reaffirm your interest and update any relevant information. Many important notifications will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application, so it is important that you provide a valid email address. Please add CSasis@hsh.lacounty.gov, as well as noreply@governmentjobs.com, and info@governmentjobs.com to your email address and list of approved senders to prevent email notifications from being filtered as spam/junk/clutter mail. You have the ability to opt out of emails from LA County. If you unsubscribe, you will not receive any email notification for any examination for which you apply with Los Angeles County. Regardless of whether you choose to unsubscribe, you can always check for notifications by logging into governmentjobs.com and viewing your profile inbox, which saves a copy of all emailed notices. Plan to submit your online application well in advance of the deadline as you may be required to verify your email address. This only needs to be done once per email address, and if you already have a job seeker account on www.governmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty, you can verify at any time by logging in and following the prompts. This is to enhance the security of your online application and to ensure you do not enter an incorrect email address.