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Program Officer, Housing & Strategic Initiatives

Company: Local Initiatives Support Corporation

Location: Houston, TX

Job Function: Community Outreach

Background

What We Do

With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families.

Strategies We Pursue

  • Equip talent in underinvested communities with the skills and credentials to compete successfully for quality income and wealth opportunities.
  • Invest in businesses, housing and other community infrastructure to catalyze economic, health, safety and educational mobility for individuals and communities.
  • Strengthen existing alliances while building new collaborations to increase our impact on the progress of people and places.
  • Develop leadership and the capacity of partners to advance our work together.
  • Drive local, regional, and national policy and system changes that foster broadly shared prosperity and well-being.

Since 1979, LISC and its affiliates have invested approximately $29.7 billion in businesses, affordable housing, health, educational mobility, community and recreational facilities, public safety, employment, and other projects that help to revitalize and stabilize underinvested communities. Headquartered in New York City, LISC’s reach spans the country from East coast to West coast in 38 markets with offices extending from Buffalo to San Francisco and in 2,400 rural counties across 49 states and Puerto Rico. Visit us at www.lisc.org

LISC Houston is dedicated to carrying out a four-pronged approach to inclusive housing, community, and economic development:

  • People: Build and support pathways to housing, health, and financial security.
  • Communities: Transform underinvested communities into thriving communities
  • Housing: Scale and serve the spectrum of the affordable housing pipeline from supporting housing developers, planning, development to homeownership, preservation and resiliency.​
  • Systems innovation: drive systems innovation across all three strategies by challenging institutional barriers to equity and inclusion.​

Summary

LISC Houston is seeking a passionate Program Officer of Housing & Strategic Initiatives to join our Team. Reporting to the Director of Community Programs and in close partnership with the entire LISC Houston team and external partners, the Program Officer will develop insights and help drive our housing and strategic initiative projects to grow our business and better serve our communities and stakeholders. He/she/they will be a self-starter who is excited about community insights and strategy and has a passion for systemic change. The position will serve as LISC Houston’s incubation of pilot and demonstration projects with some management of legacy programs and collaborate across numerous departments. This is a very public facing role that requires a presence in the community. This is an opportunity to join a dynamic, fast-paced team in an exciting, high growth environment. This role is based in Houston and requires candidates to be in local area.

 

Responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Housing

  • Further develop LISC Houston’s work in supporting housing developers – with priority to BIPOC developers – in Greater Houston, and integrating with other lines of business including lending.
  • Develop, execute, and evaluate a Housing Developer training institute(s).

Strategic Initiatives

  • Actively participate in strategic, creative problem solving on a range of different types of strategic projects.
  • Identify opportunities, develop insights, advise on strategy, proposal development, recommending solutions, implement project plans, foster external partnerships and responding to the objectives and priorities of the organization.
  • Conduct market research, analyzing and synthesizing various data sources (market research, 3rd party data, internal data, surveys). Draw insights, formulate hypotheses, and make preliminary recommendations based on analysis and research.
  • Responsible for project management; from planning to implementation and evaluation: ability to identify opportunity, create a scope from ideation to implementation, incubation and growth.
  • Collaborate with senior leadership, cross-functional partners, and others to deliver necessary insights, organize collective action and co-create systems change towards a vision for new economic possibilities.
  • Lead, convene, and manage stakeholders in working groups, coalitions, or task forces.

Grants Management and Reporting

  • Lead management, process, and monitoring of grant funding including overseeing timelines, budgets, deliverables, reporting, communications, coordination, and collaboration with consultants and development leads.

Advance LISC Houston

  • Work with local communications staff to raise the profile of LISC Houston’s work and advocate for systems change.
  • Serve as a subject matter expert: develop and execute content-specific trainings, participate in affinity/working groups, and act as subject matter expert by sharing knowledge.
  • Collaborate with team members to integrate work streams across LISC Houston’s entire portfolio, identify opportunities to amplify impact, identify gaps and streamline.
  • Actively participate with local, state and national strategic coalitions to share information and develop partner responses to community needs.
  • Performs additional duties, as required.

Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college/university OR minimum of 3 to 5 years comparable work-related experience.
  • Working knowledge of housing, economic, political, and social environments of the economic development field and the public and private resources available to support it.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication, writing, research, analysis, and relationship/team building skills.
  • Solution-oriented individual who is a strategic thinker, self-directed, and able to successfully balance multiple priorities and programs.
  • Flexibility in working with a diverse range of individuals and organizations, including but not limited to community development organizations, public agencies, national partners, private developers, funders and lenders.
  • Understand and apply project management tools and processes.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite required.

Compensation and Benefits

LISC offers a competitive salary and excellent fringe benefits.

LISC is an equal opportunity employer. LISC does not discriminate in employment on account of actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), gender identity or expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military status or veteran status, unfavorable discharge from military service, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.

We will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business.

LISC IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND JUSTICE

How to Apply

To apply please submit your application using this LINK