Director of System Programs/Community Organizer

Summary: Coming Home of Middlesex County, Inc. is a nonprofit organization established by the County to coordinate services addressing the needs of residents experiencing housing insecurity or who are at imminent risk of homelessness, with the goal of disrupting the downward spiral. To that end, it administers the County’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and the County’s Coordinated Entry & Assessment (CEA) and prioritization tools, connecting people in a housing crisis to available community resources and housing in the most efficient way. Your job as Director requires ability to manage databases and organize the system work.  Coming Home is also a leader in the County to create Systems change and improvement through work with all agencies of the Middlesex County Housing Continuum of Care.  This involves community organizing skills. 

The CEA process allows for an objective assessment of a homeless person’s needs and prioritization of such needs pursuant to collectively agreed upon assessment scoring and prioritization criteria. In July 2023, Middlesex County complemented the State homelessness hotline, NJ211, with physical access sites: a stationary one in New Brunswick and another in Perth Amboy and a third rotating among a few other places in the County.  CEA Access Navigators employed by Coming Home will staff the New Brunswick and rotating sites and monitor the Perth Amboy site.

Responsibilities of Director of System Programs re:  CEA.

1. Monitor compliance by Coming Home’s subcontracted CEA physical access site in Perth Amboy. Those access navigators will be employees of the Perth Amboy agency.
2. Communicate regularly with the partner organizations in New Brunswick and the rotating sites to ensure smooth operation and to assess any need for improvement.
3. Enter any paper Coordinated Assessment (CA) forms received from certain agencies into HMIS; encourage accurate completion and entering of data of CA by all other agencies using HMIS; and translate all this data onto the County By Name List (BNL) of all persons homeless in the County broken down by various populations. 
4.  Make appropriate referrals from the BNL when notified of opening in affordable housing in our inventory.
5. Conduct training for partner agencies regarding completion of the CA, maintenance of quality data and knowledge of the CEA system. 
6. Conduct population specific case conferencing sessions and participate in case conferencing sessions conducted by partner agencies to collectively brainstorm and suggest solutions to the homeless situation of persons on the BNL.
7. Be able to report on placement outcomes; BNL data and identify gaps in the system.
8. Assist with HUD grant renewal application annually.

The Director of System Programs will have the assistance of 3.5 staff members to carry out these responsibilities. 

Responsibilities of Director of System Programs re: HMIS

1. Serve as the liaison to Coming Home’s subcontracted HMIS administrator, a software company that manages the administration and regulatory compliance of HMIS. This liaison role will entail providing any assistance a partner agency HMIS lead may need to connect with the administrator; participate in HMIS lead calls with the administrator; facilitate the receipt of all required HUD reports, and Coming Home desired custom reports, from the administrator.
2. Work with the Community agencies to reinforce the importance of maintaining data quality and keeping the HMIS system current. 
3. Assist the County in reconciling SSH program funding reports with services allotted in the HMIS administrator’s quarterly upload to the State HMIS software program.
4. Assist with HUD grant renewal annually. 

The Director of System Programs will have the assistance of the System Data Analyst employed by Coming Home in this work. 

Responsibilities of System Program Administrator re: Continuum of Care Initiatives 

Middlesex County, with Coming Home as a lead agency, participates in the Built for Zero (BFZ) initiative of Community Solutions, Inc., a national organization that provides consulting and coaching services to communities across the nation striving to end homelessness using data and short term evaluation of community efforts. It also participates in the State of NJ’s initiative to engage in Data Driven Decision Making (3DM) in all efforts to end homelessness. You will be responsible, in conjunction with the Executive Director and leaders of partner agencies, to see to the implementation of strategies systemwide to meet our identified goals and objectives. These strategies will be accompanied by identified key performance indicators and timeline and mode of measurement. This requires community organizing activities. Your job in this regard will be to be the liaison between the BFZ coaches and the other agencies; to lead the 3DM initiatives and be a bit of a cheerleader for everyone to keep setting new goals and objectives and moving towards them.

You will assist the County in the administration of the annual Point in Time County (Survey) of homeless persons and perform tasks as requested by the Executive Director.

_________________________________