Executive Director

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

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Job Summary

Reporting to the LAHSA Board of Commissioners (the Commission), the Executive Director (ED) is primarily responsible for leading the region’s ecosystem to end homelessness.

Job Responsibilities

Executive Director

The Client

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) is an independent, Joint Powers Authority established by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles Mayor and City Council. LAHSA’s mission is to support, create, and sustain solutions to homelessness in Los Angeles County by providing leadership, advocacy, planning, and management of program funding. LAHSA is the lead agency in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, which is the regional planning body that coordinates housing and services for homeless families and individuals in Los Angeles County. As greater numbers of people in the area began to experience homelessness, LAHSA has been positioned and increasingly seen as the ‘go to’ organization to drive solutions and lead the response.

LAHSA has recognized the need to assume leadership and is now shifting from a grant coordinating to a systems administration focused organization that will serve as the backbone of the region’s rehousing system. To accomplish this organizational evolution, LAHSA is undertaking a dynamic strategic planning effort. Elements of LAHSA’s new strategic approach include:

• Achieving measurable improvement in managing grants and contracts and growing its working capital fund to ensure providers have necessary funding for services
• Increasing the speed and volume of exits from interim to permanent housing.
• Equipping data-driven decision-making and establishing key performance metrics.
• Informing and educating the public, aligning messaging among public and private partners.

Seven years ago, LAHSA’s annual budget was $70 million, today it is over $800 million and includes a mosaic of funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the County and City of Los Angeles, and funding from LA County’s ballot Measure H. $540 million is provided by city and county sources. Modest grants from private sector funders like the Conrad Hilton Foundation and Kaiser Permanente add about $1 million to LAHSA’s budget. Of the total, $93 million is earmarked for LAHSA’s operations; the balance of funding supports a robust provider network. Since 2015, the staff has grown from 400 to over 700 full time employees, including 200 outreach professionals. Clearly, LAHSA has experienced unprecedented funding growth and wants to seize this opportunity to maximize the impact of funding resources and rehouse people quickly.

To accomplish their goals, LAHSA funds research, program design, outcomes assessment, and provides technical assistance to more than 100 non-profit partner agencies ensuring that evidenced based practices of housing first, trauma informed practices and harm reduction are the core framework for programming outcomes.

To learn more about LAHSA, please visit https://www.lahsa.org/

The Mission

LAHSA’s mission is to drive the collaborative strategic vision to create solutions for the crisis of homelessness grounded in compassion, equity, and inclusion.

The Opportunity

Los Angeles City and County are experiencing the largest population of unhoused people in the nation, a problem that continues to grow as housing costs price local residents out of the market and inequities in healthcare and social services disproportionately impact low-income communities. LAHSA cannot solve the homelessness crisis on its own. It will take concerted leadership and the collaboration of numerous public and private partners to address this challenge. The Executive Director will have the opportunity to set the agenda and the benchmark or best practices, making Southern California the leader and the pacesetter on this critical social issue. This is an effort of exceptional importance and profound humanitarian merit.

The Position

Reporting to the LAHSA Board of Commissioners (the Commission), the Executive Director (ED) is primarily responsible for leading the region’s ecosystem to end homelessness. The position is unique and complex: The ED is a leader on homelessness and a tireless advocate within the political and policy communities that bridge the gaps in the system. The ED serves as the spokesperson to financial partners, political entities, representatives within the county, agencies serving people experiencing homelessness, the homeless advocacy community, the media, the affordable housing community, philanthropy, and academia. Key responsibilities of the position include:

Collaboration

The Executive Director is appointed by and will work closely with the Commission, engaging its members appropriately in key policy discussions and regularly reporting on progress toward key strategic goals and priorities, including efforts to advance LAHSA’s role as a systems administrator and the backbone of the region’s rehousing system.

Organizational Leadership

• Continue to build a strong senior leadership team of dedicated and passionate staff committed to executing LAHSA’s mission;
• Build, grow, and sustain a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion where racial equity is operationalized in practice and outcomes;
• Advance and align efforts to build efficiency and innovative best practices that support LAHSA’s monumental growth;
• Create strategic and real-time feedback loops with funders, providers and persons experiencing homelessness to ensure effective and timely services;
• Maintain the fiscal integrity of LAHSA including the development of long-term funding options capable of sustaining the organization;
• Develop a communication and branding strategy that clearly articulates LAHSA’s role as the backbone of the region’s rehousing system;
• Lead a healthy and positive culture through change management and strategic shifts.

Qualifications

Professional Requirements

The LAHSA Commission is seeking a transformational and visionary leader who holds eradicating homelessness as a core value. The successful candidate will be a seasoned leader who understands the homeless services ecosystem and is able to articulate and advocate for LAHSA’s core values, mission and priorities to all key stakeholders and constituents. Ideally, they will be knowledgeable of complex agency systems and best practices and will understand the urgency to shelter the unhoused. The new Executive Director should have the following:

• 10 years of executive level fiscal and leadership oversight of a large complex organization;
• A track record of successful collaboration with a governing Commission or Board of Directors;
• Leadership of an organization that is responsive to varied stakeholders and subject to political, public and media attention;
• Demonstrated success building, growing and sustaining a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion;
• Prior experience working in a culturally diverse and urban environment;
• Aptitude for developing short- and long-range plans, policies, and priorities for a complex organization;
• An understanding of the complicated fiscal issues associated with homelessness and a commitment to financial integrity;
• Expertise managing multiple, conflicting priorities and resolving complex problems through stakeholder processes designed to raise awareness and build consensus;
• Organizational management experience working within a complex governance structure;
• Leadership skills including the ability to establish and maintain liaison with legislative bodies, governmental agencies, county and city departments, community-based organizations, the public, and other outside jurisdictions, and to coordinate high level networks and/or coalitions across sectors or entities;
• Experience effectively engaging with elected officials, advisory boards, and officials from all levels of government, the public, and the media;
• Knowledge of emerging trends in service delivery for the intersecting issues of homelessness, health, and housing;
• An advanced degree from an accredited college or university, a relevant professional license, and/or any combination of education, training and experience in a related executive level career is required.

Personal Characteristics

The new ED will bring the following leadership qualities to LAHSA:

• Ability to be innovative and to think strategically and out of the box;
• Executive maturity and a leadership style marked by a sense of humility, empathy, and discernment;
• Flexibility and the willingness to change course when necessary;
• Politically astute and extensive experience working with elected officials;
• Coalition building with the ability to speak truth to power.

Additional Information

Benefits

How to Apply

The Selection Process

This is a confidential process and will be handled accordingly throughout all phases of the recruitment and selection process. Nominations and submittals from interested candidates are desired immediately. The recruitment is open until the position is filled. Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply early; evaluation of qualifications will be done throughout the recruitment process. Only a select number of highly qualified individuals will be invited to participate in a formal interview process. The Management Committee of the LAHSA Commission will conduct preliminary interviews.

Contact

Please submit a comprehensive résumé and compelling cover letter that describes your interest in the LAHSA’s mission and qualifications for the position as attachments through our online application portal or via e-mail to:

Michelle Kristel, Managing Partner

McCormack+Kristel

1740 Broadway, 15th Floor

New York, NY 10019

Phone: 212.531.5003 | Fax: 212.203.9599

Email: https://apptrkr.com/3684505 | Website https://www.mccormackkristel.com

Please note that your education, dates of employment and other information will be verified prior to an offer.

Applicants may make a reasonable accommodation request for this job by calling the LAHSA Human

Resources Department at (213) 683-3333; or via email at humanresources@lahsa.org.

McCormack + Kristel works only with equal opportunity employers. LAHSA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to fostering diversity within its staff. Applications are encouraged from all persons regardless of their race, color, ancestry, religious creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, medical/physical/mental condition, pregnancy/childbirth and related medical condition, age, marital status, or veteran status.

Details

• Date Posted: December 1, 2022
• Type: Full-Time
• Job Function: Executive Leadership
• Service Area: Housing
• Salary Range: 350000