Director of Fair Housing

About Communities Resist (CoRe)

Communities Resist (“CoRe”) seeks a Director of Fair Housing to join a team combating gentrification, displacement, social disenfranchisement, and structural injustice through affirmative litigation before housing, state, and federal courts as well as administrative agencies.

CoRe is a legal services organization for housing and community justice that serves Brooklyn and Queens. We have spent years working together with neighborhood organizations and organizers in representing hundreds of tenants and tenant associations to enforce their right to social citizenship by struggling, resisting, and enduring against any attempts to deny working communities, largely of color, their agency.

About the Role

The Director of Fair Housing is the person primarily responsible for the development, expansion, and supervision of fair housing work under relevant federal, state, and city statutes and regulations, with a focus on CoRe’s priority neighborhoods.

Responsibilities

• Directly supervising and/or serving as a resource for staff attorneys litigating fair housing claims before federal, state, and city courts and administrative agencies.
• Directly supervising a team of staff attorneys in group tenant association representation, including in HP proceedings, 7A proceedings, eviction defense, and matters in state or federal court relating to repairs, rent regulation, and fair housing.
• Assigning new tenant association matters to staff attorneys and assisting with managing the caseloads of direct supervisees.
• Conducting training of new and continuing staff attorneys as necessary.
• Building and maintaining a personal caseload of complex or impact-oriented fair housing matters for litigation before federal, state, and city courts and administrative agencies.
• Working with existing community partners (CBOs, elected officials, coalitions) to improve community education on fair housing issues and intake/development of fair housing matters.
• Developing new community partnerships as necessary to expand CoRe’s fair housing work.
• Programming and leading community education events on fair housing issues.
• Producing written resources (internal and external) on fair housing issues.
• Working with the Executive Director and other managers to investigate and submit applications for additional funding sources in support of CoRe’s fair housing work.
• Participating in management meetings and assisting in other managerial or administrative responsibilities as appropriate.
• Ensuring that direct supervisees conduct their representation competently, ethically, and in compliance with CoRe’s recordkeeping and reporting policies.

Qualifications

• Admission to the bar of the State of New York or eligible for admission.
• A minimum of five years of experience litigating housing cases in state, federal, and local courts, or other substantially similar experience.
• Cultural competence demonstrated through present or past residence in, or employment at organizations serving, our clients’ communities.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate with individuals from diverse backgrounds and local organizations.
• Excellent legal writing, litigation, and advocacy skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work independently with strong motivation, to supervise a caseload, track case data, and to meet deadlines.
• Computer proficiency sufficient to independently review and generate materials relevant to the position, track client information in our database, prepare reports for grantors, attend meetings, and perform tasks such as timekeeping and case notes.
• Willingness, desire, and ability to attend evening meetings and events.

Equal Opportunity Statement

CoRe is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be afforded equal employment opportunities without discrimination because of race, religion/creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, military status, predisposing genetic characteristics, victim of domestic violence status, or marital status.

Work Environment

The position is hybrid, requiring three days in the office.

Compensation

Salary will be based on years of relevant experience. The salary pay scale ranges from a minimum of $105,000 to a maximum of $155,000 based on the number of years of experience. Excellent health and other benefits.

How to Apply

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. To apply, forward a cover letter with your resume to:

Angela Piguave, CFOO
Communities Resist
E-mail: [email protected]

Please put ‘Director of Fair Housing’ in the subject line.