About Community Housing Network
Community Housing Network (CHN) is a nonprofit organization committed to providing homes for people in need through proven strategies of homeless prevention, housing assistance, affordable housing development, community education, advocacy, and referrals. Since 2001, CHN has served as the leading housing resource nonprofit organization in southeast Michigan and serves thousands of families and individuals annually who are facing homelessness, people with disabilities, low-income households, and other vulnerable Michigan residents.
Community Housing Network is Opening Doors and Transforming Lives through a work environment dedicated to empowering a work/life balance success through our Core Values: Inclusion, Integrity, Innovation and Passion.
CHN is committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness which includes:
- Creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace to provide better services for participants and staff.
- Utilizing a trauma informed approach to build rapport with vulnerable populations.
- Making available educational resources related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, all the while providing a platform for conversation.
Community Housing Network provides excellent employment opportunities with competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefit package. All full-time employees enjoy a rich package of benefits including:
- Health Insurance
- Dental
- Vision
- Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending
- 401k
- Life Insurance
- Long Term Disability Insurance
- Voluntary Products: Aflac, Short Term Disability Insurance, Life Insurance
- Generous Vacation and Medical Leave Time
Community Housing Network is an equal-opportunity employer recognized by the Detroit Free Press as a Top 100 Workplace and honored as a Crain’s Cool Place to Work.
HUD CERTIFIED HOUSING COUNSELOR
Department: Housing Resources
Reports to: Housing Counseling Manager
Employment Status Classification: Non-Exempt, Part Time Hourly
Salary Range: $19.00 to $21.00
Job Description Summary:
The Housing Counselor is a member of the Community Housing Network (CHN) Housing Counseling department, and will be primarily responsible for creating, overseeing, and delivering Homebuyer Education, Financial Literacy, and Renter Readiness courses. The staff member holding this position must be a certified HUD Housing Counselor.
Essential Functions:
- Assists with the development and implementation of CHN’s Homeownership Education, Financial Literacy, and Renter Readiness programming, procedures, curriculum, presentations, and marketing materials
- Plans and facilitates regularly scheduled Homebuyer Education (HBE), Financial Literacy, Rent Right courses and one on one individual housing counseling sessions.
- Provides individual participant/household counseling using the following techniques and tools:
- Interviews participants in a confidential manner to obtain basic information about the participants and their housing needs
- Evaluates participants’ eligibility for available mortgage products and other homeownership financing alternatives.
- Applies a working knowledge of applicable mortgage and real estate laws and regulations
- Effectively communicates complex information regarding the home purchase process to prospective homeowners
- Assists participants with credit counseling, household budget preparation, document assembly and mortgage applications as necessary
- Refers appropriate resources to assist the participant with the home purchase process
- Monitors participants’ progress toward meeting their home purchase goals
- Assist participants in developing an individual participant action plan
- Develops and maintains relationships with appropriate lender and real estate agency staff members
- Establish relationships with private home inspectors throughout Southeast Michigan
- Refer to community resources and possible legal assistance
- Manages participant files and paperwork
- Maintains current and accurate participant data in the web-based case management system, recording case notes and time spent
- Prepares and submits daily billing activity on HUD form to be submitted to MSHDA
- Represents CHN at community forums, presentations, and other related events
- Attends appropriate certification and developmental training sessions
- Other relevant duties as assigned
Qualifications and Skills:
- Possess and maintain individual certification as a HUD Housing Counselor and all other industry certifications that may be required
- Job Knowledge – Thorough understanding of real estate, banking, mortgage, and credit products and laws; Knowledge of current foreclosure laws and procedures; Knowledge of consumer protection laws and practices; Knowledge of consumer financial assistance programs; Solid understanding of the components of personal budgets and budgeting techniques
- Facilitation skills – Possesses the ability to effectively organize and conduct classes and workshops, engaging a diverse group of participants in small to large size group settings
- Interpersonal skills – Excellent telephone and one-on-one communication skills; Processes both verbal and non-verbal communication; Ability to be empathetic while separating emotion from situations
- Technical - Proficiency with Microsoft software suite. Experience with entering and maintaining data in a case management system is desirable
Travel:
- This position requires the ability to work designated days scheduled Monday through Friday for classes and/or workshops in person and/or virtually for individuals in the tri-county region. May require evening or weekend community educational activities. Saturdays for 4-hour class sessions in person and/or virtually for individuals in the tri-county region. Travel to community events. A minimum of 2 days weekly is required in person shift at the Troy office.
Work Environment and Physical Demands:
Requires the ability to be active, travel to community events, including walking, standing, bending, climbing stairs, and lifting.
Agency Expectations:
- Commitment to confidentiality, integrity, and adherence to organizational values.
- Adhere to agency policies and procedures.
- Demonstrate exceptional communication and organizational skills.
- Maintain a positive and respectful attitude.
- Demonstrate flexible and efficient time management and ability to prioritize workload.
- Consistently report to work on time and prepared to perform duties of position.
- Have a strong work ethic that equally prioritizes the needs of participants and the needs of the organization.
- Proactively and effectively communicate the knowledge gained from education/trainings/conferences to others in the organization through the use of presentations, emails, and conversations.
- Execute all duties within the framework of Housing First and trauma-informed care principles.
- Prioritize cultural understanding, respect, resilience, adaptability, conflict resolution, and resourcefulness.
- Upholds organizations core values of integrity, inclusion, innovation, passion and vision within our organization and the people we serve.
Disclaimer
This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.
