Director - Shelter Advocacy Project
POSITION: Director, Shelter Advocacy Project
DEPARTMENT: City Bar Justice Center
POSITION REPORTS TO: Executive Director, City Bar Justice Center and Director of Legal Services
START DATE: On or about September 8, 2025
LOCATION: Hybrid/Midtown Manhattan
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
The City Bar Justice Center furthers access to justice by addressing unmet civil legal needs of New Yorkers struggling with poverty and other systemic socioeconomic barriers. The Justice Center mobilizes law firms, corporate legal departments, and other legal institutions to provide pro bono legal services, educates the public on pertinent legal issues, fosters strategic community relationships, and impacts public policy.
DEPARTMENT FUNCTION
The Shelter Advocacy Project (SAP), previously known as the Legal Clinic for the Homeless, provides advice, advocacy, and representation on urgent and unmet legal needs of individuals and families in temporary housing and to those who have recently left shelter to secure permanent housing. SAP partners with and trains attorneys at law firms, corporate legal departments, and other entities to provide pro bono services to SAP clients, with the project’s services focused on overcoming denials of access to shelter, securing priceless belongings in storage while clients seek permanent housing, ensuring people receive the reasonable accommodations that they need in temporary housing, resolving housing voucher issues that delay relocation to permanent housing, and assisting with other needs related to relocation to permanent housing. SAP additionally continues to contest denials, reductions, and discontinuances of Cash Assistance and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. SAP staff and pro bono partners also advocate alongside community organizations, other legal services providers, and the City Bar to find gaps in services offered, advocating on issues like defending and improving access to a robust public benefit safety net, and expanding Wi-Fi access for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness.
The City Bar Justice Center provides high-quality, free civil legal services benefiting over 27,000 New Yorkers each year who lack the resources to hire private counsel. With a staff of about 50, the Justice Center also relies on expansive partnerships with law firms, corporate legal departments, the courts, the City Bar, and other stakeholders. In FY24-25, nearly 3,000 pro bono attorneys donated services to support legal services clinics and client matter work drawn from the Justice Center’s dozen civil legal services projects.
JOB FUNCTION
Areas of responsibility include, but are not limited to:
Provide overall strategic direction to SAP, assisting individuals and families in NYC homeless shelters and those who have recently relocated from temporary to permanent housing.
Stay up to date on urgent issues affecting people in various temporary housing settings, and develop legal programming and advocacy strategies to assist in meeting these urgent needs, including development of pro bono legal clinics, written resources, and urgent response models to client needs.
Manage SAP’s caseload, which ranges from brief legal advice to representation, by supervising case screening and intake, deciding which matters to represent or refer out, determining which matters to assign to pro bono volunteers and supervising these volunteers on matters that have been placed with them, and maintaining a direct services caseload as determined by project needs.
Mentor and supervise project staff including a project coordinator, and train, supervise, and mentor pro bono volunteers and occasional interns.
Develop training materials for pro bono volunteers and external audiences, and deliver trainings internally and externally on a range of legal issues.
Develop, maintain, and cultivate pro bono relationships, and oversee new and ongoing opportunities for pro bono volunteers to work on SAP matters.
Draft, edit, and revise legal communications, documents, and self-help guides for the general public.
Supervise, contribute to, and ensure the quality of SAP’s data tracking and reporting, and collaborate with Justice Center management on grant writing, reporting, and administration.
Exercise strategic vision to manage SAP’s policy advocacy and outreach, including close collaboration with City Bar, other legal services and community organizations, and other stakeholders on urgent issues affecting people in shelter and other temporary housing options, and those who have recently relocated to permanent housing.
Represent SAP and the City Bar Justice Center to a wide variety of audiences, offering expertise, guidance, and training to both internal and external constituencies.
Work collaboratively with the Justice Center’s in-house social work team to provide holistic, trauma-informed services that meet and support clients’ material, mental health, and emotional needs.
Serve as a collaborative member of the Justice Center’s larger legal services team, including by contributing to organization-wide strategic initiatives and supporting policy innovation and compliance practices.
QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS
Must be an attorney in good standing admitted to practice in New York with a minimum of five years’ relevant practice experience representing persons experiencing homelessness and/or public benefits applicants and/or recipients in direct advocacy and/or administrative hearings.
We encourage applications from candidates who have other experience advocating for homeless New Yorkers and those at risk of homelessness on public benefits and housing and rental assistance issues, and engaging in policy advocacy collaborations and benefit reform efforts; those with wider administrative hearings experience; and/or those experienced in delivering high-volume income-based client/clinical services.
Detail-oriented self-starter with superb legal judgment and a capacity to multi-task who is creative, thoughtful, and tech savvy; has experience building a program and/or leading teams; can support our institutional commitments to policy advocacy and community education; and can demonstrate a commitment to building and nurturing pro bono partnerships with the private bar, serving those who struggle with a lack of resources, and advancing values of diversity and equity.
Excellent writing, oral communication, organizational, and people and counseling skills; ability to work both independently and with others, and to effectively and collegially collaborate with and/or mentor, train and supervise other attorneys, legal assistants and interns, and pro bono volunteers.
Proficient with Microsoft Office 365 and ability to effectively use case management and other platforms.
Spanish language skills are highly preferred.
Ability to travel locally as needed for clinics and client needs, and ability to occasionally travel regionally or nationally for policy advocacy and conferences.
Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. We are not able to sponsor visas for this position.
The City Bar Justice Center has a hybrid work environment, and candidates for this position will be expected to work out of our main offices located in the City Bar building in midtown Manhattan roughly 50% of the time and the balance of time working from home.
The annualized salary for this role is in the $100,000 to $118,000 range depending on depth and diversity of skills and years of professional and practice experience. This position is available to start on or about September 8, 2025. We provide a competitive benefits package including generous paid time off (vacation, personal, sick time, holidays including closing between Christmas and New Year’s day this year, day off for volunteer work, extra time off in summer, choice of medical plans, dental, vision, 401K, life insurance, commuter benefits program, Employee Assistance Program, short-term/long-term disability insurance, complimentary New York City Bar Association membership, many free City Bar CLEs and employee discounts, among others!
To apply: Please submit a resume and a tailored cover letter detailing your interest in and qualifications for the position.
Candidates will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled
The City Bar Justice Center is a proud equal opportunity employer, and we particularly encourage applications from candidates belonging to communities historically under-represented in the legal profession. We actively seek a diverse applicant pool and encourage candidates of all backgrounds and unique experiences to apply. We welcome diversity of all kinds. It is our policy to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender (including gender identity), sexual orientation, disability, arrest or conviction record, pregnancy, credit history, salary history, caregiver status, marital status, partnership status, or status as a victim of domestic violence, stalking and sex offenses, religion, sex, genetic information, military status, unemployment status or any other characteristic as protected by law. With regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act and other related laws, the organization will endeavor to make reasonable accommodations for persons due to their religious beliefs, disability, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition or because the individual was a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking.