Housing Compliance Program Coordinator

Somerville is a city that upholds progressive principles for both employees and residents alike. If you are looking for a culture that embraces innovation, empowerment, and collaborative involvement, Somerville not only embraces these talents, but encourages them. Creative, hands on collaboration with passionate dedication are at the core of the City’s workplace culture.  Challenging and fast paced, Somerville also offers a generous benefits package that embodies a strong work life balance. Not only is it a “Model City”, as termed by The Boston Globe, but it is also a model employer.

Statement of Duties

The Housing Compliance Program Coordinator engages in an array of activities and projects that aid the City of Somerville in developing and implementing federal housing programs such as CDBG and HOME, and other programs to meet community needs. General responsibilities include providing assistance and support in the administration of Somerville’s affordable housing programs. Specific duties include monitoring Housing Division projects to ensure compliance with loan restrictions including owner-occupancy requirements, affordable rental restrictions, affordable resale restrictions, housing quality standards, income eligibility requirements, and other assignments.

Among other assignments, the Program Coordinator is responsible for recording new mortgages, mortgage discharges, and restrictive covenants at the Registry of Deeds; maintaining loan files, project monitoring files, project compliance tracking spreadsheets; and coordinating loan payoffs and discharges of completed mortgages and restrictions. The Coordinator is responsible for initiating enforcement procedures against property owners and tenants as necessary, and for the timely resolution of non-compliance events. The Coordinator also responds to inquiries from Somerville residents about landlord tenant problems and financial assistance for payment of rent and/or utility bills, and directs callers to available resources as appropriate

Essential Functions

Monitor Housing Division projects to ensure compliance with loan restrictions

• Tracks and monitors projects for compliance with occupancy, rent, and income restrictions for Inclusionary Housing and other affordable housing programs, including CDBG and HOME among others;
• Identifies situations of non-compliance; initiates and coordinates timely resolutions.
• Determines and certifies income eligibility of tenants and applicants for housing programs;
• Performs property inspections as needed for compliance with housing quality, as well as health and safety standards;
• Educates and orients new owners and tenants of City-funded properties on compliance and monitoring obligations regarding rental and homeownership restrictions and other requirements;
• Stays current on best practices and industry standards regarding compliance and monitoring of affordable housing programs, including and CDBG and HOME-funded projects;
• Reviews applications for completeness to ensure all necessary documentation is provided for housing programs and answers applicant inquiries for the Division’s affordable housing programs;

Loan Management

• Maintains and updates Division’s mortgage and project monitoring spreadsheets as needed;
• Records and researches documents at Middlesex South County Registry of Deeds and researches properties on the Registry’s website;
• Coordinates loan payoffs and mortgage discharges;
• Reviews requests for consents to refinance and/or subordinate mortgages on properties in which the Division has a direct financial interest and/or an interest in preserving affordability;
• Calculates affordable housing resale prices on approvals to refinance restricted homeownership properties;
• Prepares and reviews reports on program activities, as needed;

Other Duties

• Provides information and support to staff of Housing Division programs as needed;
• Provides customer service and referrals as needed, to tenants and owners with housing complaints or seeking financial assistance for rent and utility payments, including referral resources and information on tenant/landlord laws;
• Assists with updating program information and manuals as may be occasionally needed;
• Attends night meetings as may be occasionally needed.
• Other duties as assigned

Recommended Minimum Qualifications

Education and Experience: Bachelor’s Degree and three to five (3-5) years’ experience; or any equivalent combination of education, training and experience which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Special Requirements

Must have ability to travel to offsite work locations such as Middlesex Registry of Deeds and annual property inspections as needed during working hours.

Knowledge, Abilities and Skill

Knowledge: Knowledge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and the Community Preservation Act is preferred. Knowledge of and/or experience with other programs geared toward maintaining and expanding affordable housing opportunities. Strong knowledge and facility with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook) and knowledge of Microsoft Access, and PowerPoint.

Abilities:  Position requires the ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing with other City departments, state and federal agencies, architects, contractors, developers, owners, supervisors, employees, and the general public. Demonstrates the ability to work as a team member and maintain project timelines; continuous effort to improve operations, decrease turnaround times, streamline work processes, and work cooperatively and jointly to provide high quality customer service to the public at-large.  Bilingual ability in Spanish, Portuguese, and/or Haitian-Creole is preferred but not required. Strong ability to work independently and maintain motivation.

Skills:  This position requires strong skills in oral and written communication; excellent customer service skills; skill working with computers and software, and strong organizational skills.

Work Environment                                                                                     

The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices, with occasional exposure to outside elements.  Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting, but conditions are generally not unpleasant.  Employee may be required to work beyond normal business hours in response to attend evening meetings or complete work assignments.

Physical and Mental Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.

Physical Skills

Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing.  May also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30 lbs.)

Motor Skills

Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills

Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Send your resume and cover letter by June 7, 2018 to:

City Hall Personnel Office
93 Highland Avenue
Somerville MA 02143
Fax: 617-666-4426
TTY: 1-866-808-4851
Email: employment_opportunities@somervillema.gov

City of Somerville residents are especially encouraged to apply.

The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, disability or any other protected category. Women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge, upon request.

Individuals with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication, written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures, in order to access the programs and activities of the City of Somerville or to attend meetings, should contact the City’s ADA Coordinator, Nency Salamoun, at 617-625-6600 x2323 or NSalamoun@somervillema.gov.