Case Manager

Overview

The Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) pairs a behavioral health clinical partner with a dedicated City of Mobile law enforcement officer in a shared HOT vehicle, working side-by-side to locate, engage, and connect people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to the services and housing they need. The model is adapted from Houston's nationally recognized Homeless Outreach Team — in operation since 2011 — which pairs Houston police officers with mental health case managers to conduct relationship-based street outreach to the chronically homeless, with the explicit goal of reducing the number of people living on the street by helping them overcome the personal and systemic obstacles keeping them there. This is not a single-visit service model. The clinical partner and officer spend their days together, returning to the same individuals and encampments repeatedly over weeks and months, building the trust required to move someone from the street into documentation, benefits, treatment, and ultimately housing. As in Houston's program, the team's effectiveness depends on “shepherding” each person through a complex, multi-agency system — not simply referring them and moving on.

Responsibilities

The HOT Case Manager is the behavioral health and case management half of a two-person field team. Riding daily with an assigned law enforcement officer, the Clinical Partner leads engagement with individuals and encampments, conducts assessments, coordinates access to benefits, healthcare, and housing, and serves as the primary link between people living unsheltered and the broader system of care — including HOPE for All Gulf Coast, the Coordinated Entry system, HUD-funded housing programs, and AltaPointe's clinical and crisis services. The position carries a dual mandate that must be held simultaneously: compassionate, individualized engagement with people in crisis, and a working partnership with the City of Mobile toward a shared, city-wide goal of resolving encampments through connection to services and housing — not displacement alone.

Key Responsibilities

Field Outreach & Relationship Building

• Ride daily with an assigned City of Mobile law enforcement officer in the HOT vehicle to proactively locate, visit, and engage individuals and encampments throughout the assigned area.
• Conduct repeated, relationship-based outreach visits — recognizing that trust with chronically unsheltered individuals is built over multiple contacts, not a single encounter.
• Maintain a working map/roster of known encampments and individuals, updating status, needs, and engagement history after each contact.
• Provide crisis de-escalation and initial behavioral health assessment in the field when needed, coordinating with AltaPointe's crisis system for higher-acuity situations.

Benefits, Healthcare & Housing Navigation

• Assist individuals in obtaining foundational documents (state ID, birth certificate, Social Security card) required to access nearly every downstream benefit or housing program.
• Help individuals apply for and maintain public benefits (Medicaid, SSI/SSDI, SNAP, VA benefits for veterans, and other applicable entitlements).
• Transport or accompany individuals to HOPE for All Gulf Coast to complete the Coordinated Entry assessment (VI-SPDAT or successor tool), the required first step toward HUD-funded permanent supportive and rapid re-housing programs.
• Connect individuals to primary healthcare, psychiatric care, and medication management — including direct linkage to AltaPointe outpatient, crisis, and prescriber services — and provide follow-up support to sustain treatment engagement and medication adherence.
• Follow up after every referral. A warm hand-off is the beginning of the case, not the end of it — track whether the appointment was kept, the benefit was approved, or the housing application progressed, and problem-solve when it doesn't.

Encampment Engagement & Resolution

• Work jointly with the assigned officer and City partners to identify encampments and prioritize outreach based on size, risk, and duration.
• Pursue encampment resolution through service connection and housing placement as the primary strategy — the goal is not simply to clear a location, but to ensure every individual present has been engaged, assessed, and connected to an appropriate resource before any site closure.
• When an encampment sits on private property and closure is directed by the property owner or the City, support the process in a humane, individualized way: ensure each person has had genuine access to services, storage or retrieval options for belongings, and, where possible, an alternative before the site is cleared — not just notice that it will be.
• Document encampment engagement thoroughly, since this record supports both individual case continuity and the City's broader encampment resolution reporting.

City & Community Partnership

• Function as a true partner to the City of Mobile, sharing the City's goal of reducing unsheltered homelessness and encampment presence citywide — recognizing that HOT succeeds only when the clinical and law enforcement partners, and the City itself, are working from the same playbook.
• Build and sustain working relationships with City departments, HOPE for All Gulf Coast, area shelters, healthcare providers, and other Continuum of Care partner agencies.
• Engage directly with residents, business owners, and community members — including those who hold frustration or negative views about unsheltered individuals in their neighborhood or business district.
• Respond to vocal or upset community members in a way that is professional, de-escalating, and consistent with the mission of both AltaPointe and the City — acknowledging legitimate community concerns without compromising the dignity or rights of the people the team serves.
• Represent the program accurately and consistently to the public, media, and partner agencies, operating within established program protocols and City agreements at all times — staying within the defined scope and process of the partnership, even under pressure to act outside it.

Documentation & Program Accountability

• Maintain accurate, timely case documentation in HMIS and any AltaPointe or City-required tracking systems.
• Track individual- and encampment-level outcomes (contacts made, assessments completed, benefits secured, housing placements achieved) to support program reporting to AltaPointe, the City, and the Continuum of Care.
• Participate in regular case staffing and joint debriefs with the assigned officer, HOT supervisor, and partner agencies.

Core Competencies

• Relationship-first engagement — able to build genuine trust over repeated contact with individuals who may be wary of both government and outreach systems.
• Operates within the lines — respects the defined scope, protocols, and inter-agency agreements governing the HOT partnership; escalates appropriately rather than improvising outside the agreed process, even when the situation is emotionally difficult or time-pressured.
• De-escalation and boundary-setting, applied equally to individuals in crisis and to frustrated community members.
• Systems navigation — comfortable coordinating across multiple agencies (City, AltaPointe, HOPE for All, HUD-funded housing providers, healthcare systems) on behalf of a single client.
• Resilience and emotional regulation — sustains a compassionate, non-judgmental posture across difficult, slow-moving, and sometimes repetitive casework.
• Diplomacy under public scrutiny — represents the program credibly to residents, business owners, media, and elected officials without becoming defensive or overpromising.
• Team-based accountability — works as a true partner to the assigned officer and the City, understanding that HOT's credibility depends on both halves of the team consistently delivering on the same mission.

Working Conditions

• Field-based position; the majority of each workday is spent outdoors, in the HOT vehicle, or on-site at encampments, not in an office.
• Exposure to heat, cold, and inclement weather; walking on uneven or unimproved terrain.
• Regular close-proximity collaboration with a law enforcement officer as a working partner.
• Occasional exposure to emotionally difficult situations, including active crisis, medical emergencies, and encampment closures.
• Some scheduling flexibility required to align with encampment sweeps, court proceedings, or City-scheduled resolution activities.

Key Partnerships

This program draws on partners including Mobile Police Department, AltaPointe Health, the VA, and the local Continuum of Care and provider network — the Mobile HOT Clinical Partner is expected to build and sustain effective working relationships with:

• City of Mobile (assigned law enforcement partner and relevant City departments)
• HOPE for All Gulf Coast (Coordinated Entry, Continuum of Care lead agency)
• Healthcare for the Homeless
• Local shelters, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing providers
• VA and veteran service organizations, for unhoused veterans
• Area hospitals and healthcare providers
• Business districts, neighborhood associations, and community members in areas with active encampments

Supervision and Consultation:

• Seeks supervision and consultation as needed
• Accepts and employs suggestions for improvement

Record Keeping:

• Maintains confidential files containing required information
• Maintains documentation for those individuals receiving services
• Provides timely documentation that meets requirements of various funding sources including, Medicaid, and others.

  Courteous and respectful towards consumers, visitors and co-workers:

• Treats consumers with care, dignity, and compassion
• Respects consumer’s privacy and confidentiality
• Is pleasant and cooperative with others
• Assists consumers and visitors as needed
• Personal values don’t inhibit ability to relate and care for others
• Is sensitive to the consumer’s needs, expectations and individual differences
• Is gentle and calm with consumers and families

Administrative and Other Related Duties as Assigned:

• Actively participates in Performance Improvement activities.
• Actively participates in AltaPointe committees as required.
• Completes assigned tasks in a timely manner.
• Follows AltaPointe policies and procedures.
• Attends to required in-service training and other workshops.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, counseling, human services, or a related field, eligible for case management certification. Must be 23 years of age, maintain a valid Alabama driver's license and an acceptable driving record, and have proof of current liability insurance.

• Knowledge of psychiatric disorders in the adult population
• Knowledge of cultural diversity
• Knowledge of behavior management, crisis intervention and interventions common to acute psychotic consumers; as well as, to non-violent crisis intervention practices
• Knowledge of psychiatric rehabilitation principles
• Knowledge of available community employment resources
• Knowledge of educational methods appropriate to adults with psychiatric disorders

Preferred

• Working knowledge of Coordinated Entry, HUD Continuum of Care housing programs, and the local homeless services system (HOPE for All Gulf Coast, shelter and housing providers).
• CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) training or willingness to complete it.
• Bilingual or multilingual ability.
• Lived experience with homelessness, recovery, or the behavioral health system.