Housing Support Specialist (Rental Assistance)

Location: Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid)

Pay: $27–$30 per hour (non-exempt, overtime eligible)

Schedule: Full-time, approximately 40 hours per week

Reports to: Director of Finance & Administration

Funding: This is a grant-funded position, with current funding through July 2028.

About the Role

A stable home is often the foundation for a fresh start. As our Housing Support Specialist, you’ll keep our rental assistance program running smoothly by making sure housing providers are onboarded correctly.

You’ll be the main point of contact for landlords and property managers, from onboarding through monthly payment, and the connection between our Program Team and our Finance Department. Day to day, you’ll review leases and payment documents, process monthly rent payments, resolve payment issues, and keep participant files organized and audit-ready under state grant requirements.

This role is a great fit for someone who is highly organized, enjoys solving problems, communicates well with different people, and believes in second chances.

What You’ll Do

Housing Provider Partnerships & Onboarding

• Housing provider communication: Serve as the primary point of contact for landlords, property managers, and other housing providers, from onboarding through monthly payments.
• Vendor onboarding: Collect W-9s and payment details, upload housing provider documents to Dropbox, start onboarding in Intellistack, and provide follow-up and technical support until each provider is set up for payment.
• Relationship building: Build and maintain strong relationships with landlords and property management companies.
• Expanding housing access: Identify and track new housing opportunities and keep a shared tracker of housing provider contacts up to date.

Leases, Payments & Records

• Lease review: Review and verify lease agreements for eligibility, completeness, and allowable costs, and keep them on file.
• Monthly rent payments: Prepare monthly payment requests for each enrolled participant so rent is paid directly to housing providers.
• Payment records: Create a payment record in Apricot, our client database, for each participant’s monthly rent payment.
• Payment tracking: Enter and track rental assistance payments and tenant rent portions in our internal databases.
• Payment issue resolution: Manage the monthly list of uncashed checks, follow up with housing providers, and help move providers to direct deposit (ACH) whenever possible. Quickly resolve missing documents, check delays, and payment disputes to protect our community housing partnerships.

Compliance & Audit Readiness

• Program compliance: Make sure rental assistance payments meet grant eligible-cost guidelines.
• Audit-ready files: Keep participant files organized and audit-ready, with income verifications and leases that match payment records.
• Program invoicing: Work with the Finance Department to prepare monthly grant invoices and rental assistance documentation.
• Invoice backup documentation: Pull backup documentation for invoices and label it so each charge is clearly matched to its supporting records.

Collaboration & Process Improvement

• Cross-team coordination: Act as the financial compliance link between Career & Reentry Program Managers and the Finance Department, turning program needs into clear, compliant payment processes.
• Regular check-ins: Meet regularly with Finance and program leadership to stay on top of priorities and resolve challenges early.
• Continuous improvement: Recommend ways to streamline systems and improve communication and how assistance is delivered.

What You’ll Bring

• At least 1 year of experience in property management, housing programs, homeless services, or financial administration (such as accounts payable or vendor management).
• A bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, accounting, human services, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Knowledge of vendor onboarding, including W-9s and banking information for payments.
• Familiarity with standard lease agreements and rental assistance programs.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage a high volume of files while meeting monthly deadlines.
• Clear, respectful communication with landlords, program staff, and finance teams, including active listening and de-escalation skills.
• A commitment to handling sensitive and confidential information with discretion.

Preferred

• Ability to communicate in Spanish with landlords and participants (strongly preferred).
• Lived experience with incarceration or the justice system, or experience serving system-impacted communities.
• Experience with Apricot, Intellistack, Dropbox, or similar database and document management tools.
• Experience with government- or grant-funded programs.

Don’t meet every qualification? We still encourage you to apply. We value lived experience and transferable skills, and we strongly encourage people who have been impacted by the justice system to apply.

What We Offer

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid holidays, vacation time (15 days), and sick leave
• Option to work up to 3 days a week remotely from home
• The chance to do meaningful work that helps people secure stable housing and build new lives

About Us

Defy Ventures is an entrepreneurship, employment, and personal development training program that recognizes the potential in many formerly and currently incarcerated people to become successful, legal entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs in Training (EITs) “defy the odds” through our program, which includes intensive leadership development, Shark Tank-style business pitch competitions, and executive mentoring. We work to address injustice through our commitment to changing perceptions, breaking cycles of recidivism, and helping people to create equity in historically marginalized communities.

Equal Opportunity

Defy Ventures is an equal opportunity employer. Defy Ventures uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all new hires in the United States.

Qualified Applicants with Criminal Histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with the requirements of the California Consumer Reporting Agencies Act and Los Angeles’s Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.

Defy Ventures encourages all applicants to apply and seeks to hire qualified staff who reflect the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We define diversity in broad terms to include race, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, geography, socio-economic status and other unique attributes that make us who we are.

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Paid holidays, vacation time (15 days), and sick leave

Option to work up to 3 days a week remotely from home

401k, parental leave

Bilingual in English & Spanish preferred.