REPORTS TO: Chicago Rents Project Manager

STATUS: Non-exempt, hourly, temporary

LOCATION: Chicago, Illinois

NUMBER OF POSITIONS: 1

This position will be grant funded for 12 months but may potentially be extended based on a number of possible factors.

About All Chicago:

All Chicago’s mission is to unite our community and resources to provide solutions that ensure and sustain the stability of home. On any given night, nearly 6,000 Chicagoans do not have a place to call home. These are our neighbors and together we can ensure that we all have stable homes.

All Chicago prevents and ends homelessness through emergency financial assistance, community partnerships, data analytics, and training and research. We strengthen our community’s collective efforts to prevent and end homelessness, guided by a vision of impact, influence, and inspiration. As our name implies, All Chicago brings together homeless service providers, non-profit partners, donors, and people with the lived experience of homelessness in a strategic effort to make homelessness history in Chicago.

All Chicago launched the Expedited Housing Initiative, which has as one goal to centralize landlord outreach and engagement. We believe this will allow Chicago to rapidly connect people experiencing homelessness with rental subsidies, services, and units scattered throughout the city. EHI’s success hinges on our ability to identify a large number of landlords and units. This position is a new position to oversee the expansion of Chicago Rents, our centralized landlord outreach and engagement initiative.

We bring a sense of collaboration to our work and actively seek solutions through partnership. Come work with passionate, like-minded colleagues in a supportive environment as we help end homelessness. Learn more at www.allchicago.org.

Position Summary:

Through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, Chicago has allocated a significant portion of its CARES Act funding for rental subsidies to help end homelessness for many households in Chicago.

Chicago Rents will require coordinating activities across the homeless service system, including various housing programs, populations, and partners. System-level coordination of landlord outreach and engagement will increase the effectiveness of existing housing programs by increasing the number of landlords who participate in housing programs and who may be willing to bend screening criteria to make their units more accessible, increasing the ability of housing providers to identify housing units, and streamline city-level processes to make the housing process more effective.

The Landlord Engagement Coordinator (LE Coordinator) will work on a team to interface with owners, landlords, and property managers within the city of Chicago to identify housing opportunities for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The LE Coordinator will be responsible for securing an average of 45-60 units per month by engaging landlords of varying sizes throughout the city. The LE Coordinator will manage the landlord relationship from initial engagement through to lease signing, providing a single point of contact and support. This will include introducing the Expedited Housing Initiative to landlords, explaining how it works, identifying and reviewing potential units, conducting virtual inspections, and ensuring rent reasonableness of the unit. The LE Coordinator will also maintain information about their work with the landlord in the Landlord Database to support coordination among the Chicago Rents team.

Specific Responsibilities:

Landlord Engagement and Unit Identification – 90%

• Execute an outreach strategy to recruit and retain new landlords and property managers for partnership with EHI.
• When necessary, perform initial visits at prospective properties to ensure they meet guidelines for habitability standards. These may be completed virtually.
• Maintain a database of landlords and management companies working with EHI program which includes data elements necessary for the housing providers to determine the best match for program participants.
• Educate landlords on how the EHI program works, including timeframe and potential payment breakdown.
• Build and sustain relationships with property managers, landlords, owners, and firms to expand the scope of their participation. Establish trusting relationships.
• Assist in negotiating with landlords experiencing conflict to find solutions to problems. This may include responsibility for the landlord hotline at various times during the week to ensure timely response to landlord concerns.
• Mitigate issues with landlords to avoid filing evictions. Help manage landlord expectations while service agency manages participant aspect.
• In collaboration with the Chicago Rents Project Manager and the Continuum of Care (CoC) Communications Manager, develop materials to be used in coordination with landlord outreach and engagement, such as brochures and mailings, and develop landlord-focused content for the All Chicago website.
• Maintain awareness of changes in market and community processes that can impact services; bring forward prospective recommendations to deal with the changes.
• Host regular landlord meetings with existing partners to develop and strengthen relationships.

Other Tasks – 10%

• Acts as an ambassador for All Chicago in all settings, demonstrating a commitment to the organizational mission and the homelessness response system priorities.
• Creates an annual professional development plan and actively works to meet identified benchmarks throughout the year.
• Assist with the semi-annual All Continuum of Care (CoC) meetings and other events, as appropriate.
• Respond effectively and professionally to inquiries, complaints, or concerns, as presented by staff, persons of lived experience, service providers, and other stakeholders.
• Create work plans to outline and track timely completion of related tasks.
• Work closely with the Development & Communications department to assist in developing marketing materials and communication to ensure accuracy and consistency of messaging.
• Identify and share informative pieces for the monthly program newsletter.
• Actively participate in monthly staff meetings.

Qualifications:

• Successful candidates will demonstrate commitment to preventing and ending homelessness in Chicago and will have the following:
• Bachelors degree in Marketing, Public Administration, Business Administration or equivalent degree or experience.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience in property management, housing management, and/or real estate preferred.
• Experience in group training/facilitation and working with diverse populations.
• Strong sales ability.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Fair housing laws and practices and tenant/landlord/relations preferred.
• Knowledge of housing issues in Chicago preferred.
• Six months work experience in a social service setting preferred.
• Experience with working with people experiencing housing instability or homelessness preferred.
• Strong understanding of homeless population and willingness to house those most vulnerable.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; organizational, conflict resolution and computer literacy.
• Ability to work closely with other employees to ensure positive, constructive environment within the program or department, and throughout the agency.
• Excellent professional writing and verbal communications skills.
• Strong work ethic and integrity.
• Goal-oriented and results-driven.
• Strong interpersonal skills, professional presence, and ability to interact with a diverse audience.
• Passion for inclusivity and diversity, and interest in being part of a multicultural team.
• Good working knowledge/skills with Microsoft Office Suite of products including, but not limited to, Word, PowerPoint, Excel required.

Work Environment

• All Chicago's normal business hours are 9am to 5pm. We are currently working entirely remotely and will transition to a hybrid remote/in-office work setting in the future. We will consider accommodations.
• All Chicago values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply. All Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ qualified individuals based on individual merit. All Chicago does not discriminate against any individual with respect to the terms and conditions of employment based on that individual’s race, sex, age, religion, color, national origin, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, housing status, or any other non-merit factor protected under state, local or federal laws. Equal Employment Opportunity applies to all personnel actions such as recruiting, hiring, compensation, benefits, promotions, training, transfer, termination, and opportunities for training. All Chicago is committed to a fair and equitable workplace where everyone is a respected and valued member of the team.

Compensation

• Salary is in the $44,700 - $59,400 range, commensurate with experience. Comprehensive benefits package (with some employee contributions) includes medical, dental, vision insurance, and disability. Employer-matched retirement plan. Generous paid leave.