Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location(s): Columbus, Ohio
Salary Range: $58312 - $75803 Per Year
Job Summary: The Housing Specialist will function as a Social Service Representative operating within the Community Outreach Division (COD) within the Chalmers P Wylie Veterans Outpatient Clinic - Columbus VA, in Columbus, OH. The core responsibilities will center on securing housing for veterans entering the program throughout the Columbus, Ohio catchment by providing program support to the HUD-VASH clinical team, supervisor, and coordinator.
Major Duties:
Qualifications: IN ORDER TO QUALIFY FOR THIS POSITION AT THE GS-8 LEVEL YOU MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING: THERE IS AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY REQUIREMENT: In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English. You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English in order to meet the requirements of this position. PLUS SELECTIVE PLACEMENT FACTOR (SCREEN-OUT) - A Selective Placement Factor (SPF) has been identified for this position. Selective Placement Factors (SPF) are a prerequisite to appointment and represent minimum requirements for the position. Applicants who do not meet the SPF are ineligible for further consideration. The SPF for this position is: "Possess a current and unrestricted, valid state-issued Driver's License." (Note: We may not accept pictures. Please Do Not submit a copy of your license. This requirement will be verified if interviewed.) PLUS THERE IS A BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT: You must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in major fields of study such as: social welfare, sociology, psychology, public administration, philosophy, education, anthropology, history, economics and/or English. (COPY OF TRANSCRIPTS ARE REQUIRED) PLUS SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Possess two (2) years of experience as a social welfare worker or social work assistant in a voluntary, public, social, or health agency. One (1) year of this experience must have been in a medical setting and equivalent to the next lower grade in Federal service. Specialized experience includes assisting clients/patients with the enrollment process for housing programs, serve as liaison with multiple parties to address housing needs, interacting with clients/patients and with both clinical and non-clinical staff, orienting new clients/patients by providing education, resources and information about programs available, assist clients/patients with their move into housing, conduct walkthrough of apartments, providing support HUD-VASH clinical staff related to HUD-VASH program, conduct outreach to landlord and property managers to increase awareness and use of HUD-VASH vouchers. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: Work is physically active, occurs in the clinical environment and in the community while serving Veteran populations with complex needs. While the work does not normally require physical care for a veteran, except in an unexpected emergency situation, the work may involve some walking, standing, bending, or carrying light items. Competent automobile driving skills are required. The position requires the transportation of Veterans as part of normal work requirements. The staff person, as part of their expected duties, will need to maintain an active unrestricted driver's license This transportation will be provided in approved government vehicles. The incumbent must meet the minimum VA and VHA medical requirements for the operation of vehicles as outlined in VA Handbook 5019, Part IV, Appendix A. The work is primarily performed in community and office settings. The Housing Specialist will be required to walk around the Medical Center and/or travel via government transportation to case management meetings in the home, meetings with the PHA, and meetings in the larger community, often with landlord or homeless service providers. The Housing Specialist may also be required to provide transportation to Veterans and the Veteran's family for some community-based appointments, medical, court or other justice contacts, or to obtain needed documentation or identification. The Housing Specialist may also provide community outreach involving additional community contacts. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.
How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12945178. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 05/04/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.
Application Deadline: 2026-05-04