How To Become A Housing Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a housing specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Primarily, housing specialists liaise with community organizations, government agencies, and property owners to find suitable housing for their clients. Their clients include disadvantaged and struggling members of society. They evaluate the eligibility of their clients and determine their housing and service needs. They assist them with searching for available properties and negotiating agreeable terms. Furthermore, they inform clients of their rights and responsibilities as tenants. Besides that, they investigate and resolve client and landlord issues. Additionally, they maintain daily logs, records, activity documents, and reports.

Housing specialists are employed in housing authorities, non-profit and private organizations. Some employers require at least a high school diploma with one or more years of relevant work experience. Others prefer an associate's degree or higher in social work or a related discipline. Candidates must possess communication, interpersonal, case management, analytical, organization, and negotiation skills. Housing specialists earn around $41,537 yearly. Their salary varies from $30,000 to $57,000.

ScoreHousing SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $40,842

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.70%

Asian 7.05%

Black or African American 11.97%

Hispanic or Latino 19.47%

Unknown 4.74%

White 55.09%

Gender

female 73.00%

male 27.00%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

8.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a housing specialist

Explore housing specialist education requirements

Most common housing specialist degrees

Bachelor's

56.7 %

Associate

18.4 %

Master's

12.0 %

Start to develop specific housing specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Landlords	10.16%
Social Work	5.70%
Mental Health	5.44%
Housing Assistance	5.28%
Veterans	4.77%

Complete relevant housing specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New housing specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a housing specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real housing specialist resumes.

Research housing specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage all group information in PMS, MARSHA and Delphi information systems.
Work with management team to review current guidelines and prepare for REAC and MOR inspections with expectations of achieving maximum scores/ratings.
Assist clients with ADL's, housekeeping, and meal prep
Assist in ADL's, transporting, med passes, daily chores in house, outings.

Prepare your housing specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your housing specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a housing specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable housing specialist resume templates

Build a professional housing specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your housing specialist resume.