SSI Social Worker

Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) is a non-profit law firm. Our staff provide free civil legal services to individuals and families living in poverty throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Our community-based service model includes a wide range of access points, including legal hotlines, six physical offices, and community-based advocacy clinics and intake points. We practice in multiple inter-related legal substantive areas to prevent and stop homelessness, increase economic stability, protect low-income consumers, expand access to healthcare, and enhance safety for survivors of interpersonal violence. Our clients include the working poor, families with children, foster youth, seniors, immigrants, veterans, individuals impacted by the criminal and juvenile legal systems, and persons with disabilities. The core of our community-based practice is working alongside our individual clients to protect their legal rights, resolve immediate crises and remove legal barriers to long-term stability and escaping poverty. BayLegal is also uniquely positioned to identify patterns of illegal practices and engage in opportunities to protect the legal rights of low-income communities and increase efficiency and effectiveness of public services through broader advocacy and impact litigation.

BayLegal’s San Francisco Social Security Disability/SSI Advocacy Team is a collaborative, interdisciplinary legal team that includes attorneys and social workers who assist unhoused San Franciscans with physical, mental, and cognitive disabilities in obtaining Social Security Disability, SSI, and CAPI benefits. The team engages in community outreach and works closely with the San Francisco Human Services Agency, community-based organizations, and healthcare providers to support clients in securing benefits and achieving long-term stability.

Position: BayLegal seeks a passionate, self-reflective, and empathic social worker to work with unhoused or recently housed San Franciscans with disabilities who are being represented by BayLegal in their claims for Social Security disability benefits. Social workers and attorneys at BayLegal work collaboratively in case assessment and strategy, forming an interdisciplinary team to support clients. The primary role of the social worker is to engage clients through ongoing outreach, including home visits, and support clients, as they are ready, to connect to and maintain health care. The social worker also helps clients navigate the homelessness response system, connects clients to resources including income and health benefits, and supports clients to attend critical appointments related to their legal case. Social Security cases can last months to years, providing the opportunity for building strong rapport with clients and helping them work towards their goals.

In addition to experiencing the trauma of housing instability and homelessness, our clients are often coping with physical and mental health disabilities, substance use, domestic violence, and poverty. We seek someone who is skilled at working within the frameworks of harm reduction, stages of change, and motivational interviewing to help clients navigate these different issues, engage with their legal case, and increase their economic and housing stability. This position is located in San Francisco and requires almost daily travel on foot and public transit throughout the city/county to best serve our clients where they are. As a member of BayLegal's regional practice, there may also be travel within BayLegal's broader service areas for training, organizational meetings, and broader advocacy.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support clients in identifying their needs, setting goals, and developing a plan for achieving those goals through appropriate evidence-based clinical practices.
• Travel to and meet clients in various settings, such as home, shelters, street, public benefits offices, medical clinics, and hearings.
• Regularly engage clients through outreach to assess interest in obtaining health care, and help clients identify physical, behavioral health care, and substance use treatment needs, connect clients to care, provide case management to prioritize, set, and follow up on health care appointments – includes accompanying clients to appointments as needed.
• Provide crisis intervention and crisis counseling, develop emergency safety plans, and long-term plans as a team with the client and attorney.
• Help clients connect to housing support services and refer clients for help to maintain housing. All BayLegal’s unhoused San Francisco SSI Advocacy clients have been prioritized for housing by the city’s Coordinated Entry system.
• Support clients' applications for Social Security disability benefits by assisting with some forms, appointments, supporting clients at hearing and other interviews. Assist and follow up with applications for other benefits programs, such as County Adult Assistance, CalFresh, and MediCal.
• Develop relationships and engage in collaboration with a range of public and private community partners, including governmental agencies, medical and behavioral health care providers, and community-based organizations, to ensure integrative services and address systemic barriers facing BayLegal's client community;
• Engage as part of a multi-disciplinary team in other tasks and projects that further BayLegal's mission and operations as a non-profit.
• Collaborate with social workers across BayLegal to provide consultation and agency-wide training as needed.

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in social work, social welfare, marriage, family and child counseling, counseling psychology, or social psychology or three years of equivalent experience.
• Familiarity with and experience working within the frameworks of harm reduction, stages of change, and motivational interviewing to work with clients.
• An interest in being part of an interdisciplinary team with attorneys to support clients.
• An interest in issues pertaining to homelessness, economic justice, disability, and social determinants of health.
• Comfortable working in a variety of environments, including SRO Hotels, shelters, and health clinics, and environments with pets as the majority of our clients have dogs as support animals.
• Commitment to complying with all BayLegal funding requirements, and firm standards, policies, and practices.
• Current proficiency, and ability to improve proficiency, in technological equipment, hardware, and software necessary to perform duties of the position.
• Must be fully vaccinated or be willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccination by date of hire and be fully vaccinated to be considered. Proof of vaccination required.
• Humility in working with colleagues and clients, and individuals of all identities, experiences, and perspectives.
• Excellent verbal, client interviewing, and organizational skills.
• Strong personal work ethic and ability to organize time, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with a dynamic team.
• Curious and self-directed with an ability to anticipate what needs to be done.
• Ability to simultaneously manage multiple projects while maintaining a firm grasp of individual project details.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Licensure (e.g., LCSW, LMFT) or progress towards licensure (e.g., ASW, MFT Intern or Trainee).
• ​​​​​​​In-depth knowledge of, and experience with, social services agencies, housing support services, and behavioral health providers in San Francisco County.
• Experience working in a variety of settings in the field with individuals with physical and mental health disabilities, survivors of domestic violence, and those impacted by complex trauma and homelessness.

Hybrid Work Option: BayLegal is committed to the health and safety of our staff, clients, and community.  Being accessible to our client communities and reducing barriers for them to access our services is integral to our mission and commitment as a direct services community-based law firm.  The SF SSI Social Worker position requires significant time at the BayLegal San Francisco office or in the community meeting in-person and helping individuals who are experiencing housing instability. SF SSI Social Worker may work remotely from home on limited basis consistent with these needs. Currently, all BayLegal employees are expected to work on-site and in-person three (3) days per week and as needed for client services and office staffing needs. Given the responsibilities and client services of this position it is anticipated to require more than 3 days per week in-person. Employees must reside in California and are expected to live at a distance allowing them to commute to their physical BayLegal base location, and to other service delivery locations as needed, during the standard work week. 

Compensation and Benefits: We offer a diverse, family friendly environment, and compensation based on competitive public interest salaries along with a generous benefits package.

BayLegal's benefits package includes 100% employer covered medical, dental, and life insurance for employees and up to 60% for dependents; BayLegal student debt reimbursement program; long term disability insurance; employee assistance program; wage differentials for multi-lingual employees whose non-English language skills are regularly used in the provision of work tasks and pass a request test of fluency and/or proficiency; dependent childcare employer contribution program; employer paid CA Bar license and/or social work license fees; and 401k retirement plan with BayLegal contribution following first year. BayLegal has a generous paid leave policy which includes 15 holidays each year; vacation (starting at 13 days and increasing with additional years of employment), 3 floating holidays each year (days chosen by employee); sick leave; and parental leave.

This is a union position (Bay Area Legal Aid Workers, “BALAW”), and the 2026 salary range is: $65,860 - $106,724 and placement depends on years of experience and the salary scale can be found on our BayLegal union positions salary scale for 2022-2026.

Work Environment & Physical Demands:

Work Environment: This position is primarily sedentary and currently hybrid remote. When in the office, the applicant can expect to be working at a desk in a temperature-controlled office, in a modular space or individual office. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Physical Demands: While performing duties of job, employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; talk and hear. Employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Applications: BayLegal is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Recruitment, placement and promotions are conducted without regard to an individual's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability status, veteran status or sexual orientation, or any other classification protected by Federal, State, and local laws & ordinances. We will consider qualified candidates with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of all Federal, state and local laws. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

Reasonable accommodations are available upon request. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

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