Peer Specialist - Homeless Services
About the job
- A high school diploma or GED, or two years of experience working in a large residential or institutional setting with a special-needs population.
- Strong interpersonal and organizational skills.
- Patience, creativity, flexibility, compassion, and sensitivity to people with mental health and substance abuse issues and criminal court involvement.
- Facilitate engagement with teams by building connections with participants and families, conducting outreach to promote community awareness of services, encouraging help-seeking, and bridging communication between team members and participants when needed.
- Develop authentic, meaningful relationships with individuals and families through empathy, shared experiences, listening, and collaboration.
- Understand, share, and discuss multiple frameworks for understanding life experiences such as psychosis, using recovery- and resilience-oriented language to make space for complex personal narratives.
- Advocate with and for program participants in the broader community and on the team.
- Collaborate with participants to clarify personal visions and develop wellness tools, while supporting self-awareness, life skills, and connections to external resources and community services.
- Influence team culture by advocating for clients, promoting a youth-friendly approach, and encouraging recovery-oriented language.
- Maintain open and frequent team communication, report safety and other concerns, and keep required notes on participant visits; collaborate with participants on reporting when appropriate.
- New York State driver's license.
About the company
S:US helps New Yorkers who face homelessness, disability, behavioral health and addiction challenges, poverty, criminal justice involvement, and trauma access a wide range of supports across New York City and Long Island. It coordinates services such as case management, housing and stabilization, behavioral health treatment, recovery supports, rehabilitation, advocacy, and community-based programs tailored to each person’s needs. By linking housing, health, justice, and community resources, S:US delivers integrated, place-based services that address multiple barriers at once rather than focusing on a single issue. The goal is to help people lead purposeful lives, improve neighborhoods, and break the cycle of poverty for current and future generations of New Yorkers.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
1978
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- The April 2026 crisis center adds recurring operating funding through 2031.
- Urban Farms and bed-stuy food programs deepen neighborhood visibility and referrals.
- TD's 2026 grant expands Homebase staffing during acute eviction pressure.
What critics are saying
- S:US depends heavily on New York public funding and contract renewals.
- Aerosolized political attacks on supportive housing threaten S:US's core Brooklyn model.
- If state reimbursement tightens, its housing-and-behavioral-health network faces existential contraction.
What makes Services for the Underserved unique
- S:US opened Brooklyn's sixth state-funded Crisis Stabilization Center in April 2026.
- S:US won a $250,000 TD Charitable Foundation grant for eviction prevention.
- S:US secured a $894,050 Truxton SRO contract through 2032.
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Company News
In partnership with Services for the Underserved, NYC Health Dept launched the city's first Public Health Vending Machine located at 1676 Broadway, Brooklyn (corner of Decatur and Broadway).