support worker

service coordinator

housekeeper

cook

maintenance technician

Pacifica Housing Advisory Association

It's kind of like a cool kid's club, if you don't fit in with management/mgmts pets or are not a run and tell pet to mgmt, you will end up on your own & begin to find yourself being called in to the office based on incorrect information and/or rumors. Even if you tell the truth, you will still get reprimanded and once they've decided they don't like you, they will do everything to get rid of you. You'll be told that we (you), work in the "gray' until you do something that they don't like, then they'll drag out policy and procedure and nail you to the wall for it (if there is no P&P theyll create one for the situation that suits their agenda). 
You will be told/read that policy that states  employees are not permitted to do something, yet, another CO worker will be granted the 'blind eye' to do the exact same thing. The guidelines/rule change daily/per employee and you WILL leave after training shifts more confused than you were before you did the shift. Each staff that trains you will either not train you at all because they dont want too, or because "its not their job" or they are too busy gossiping. You will learn 10 different ways to perfrorm the exact same task/response to a situation and then you get to try to figure out which is the correct/best (go read P&P and go with whats in writing). The place is a rumor mill, full of gossip and back stabbing. 
The only reason to work this job is the individuals that require support need and deserve advocates/staff who are doing this job for the right reasons. If you're good at your job, you'll get close to the clients, learn how to best support them and have them open up to you and if you're lucky, you'll learn about  their stories and who they are. The other pro to working here is the work experience is worth more than its weight in gold and the real life learning opportunities are endless. 

As a housing support worker I manned the front desk of a supported housing property. Duties included, providing harm reduction supplies (syringes, crack pipes, condoms),  doing light janitorial work, providing on the fly counselling/support for tenants,  enforcing tenancy expectations, cooking for/with tenants, interacting with outside support agencies, advocacy, keeping logs and documentation and generally keeping the peace. 

Given the clientele (marginalized people,hard to house, mental health issues, substance abuse issues, sex workers) the work environment was dynamic challenging and occasionally dangerous. 

On numerous occasions I was threatened with physical violence at work, had to administer naloxone, and had to deal with dead bodies. I interacted with tenants (mostly intravenous drug users) with communicable diseases. and handled bed bug infested furniture and biohazardous material. 

While management was also exposed to the repeated trauma of such a workplace the supervision and support felt lacking. It was not uncommon to be left working alone with problematic tenants or back on the floor immediately after seeking support for a dangerous incident. interacting with emergency services was a regular occurence.  

The intense work environment was very draining and the remuneration for the job given the risks and exposure to vicarious trauma was not appropriate. 

Good luck!

Pacifica is a really great place to work. They have a very supportive management and team culture, which is necessary for the difficult and sometimes heartbreaking work. 

Managers are extremely understanding when it comes to family responsibilities and self-care. Their wellness days make a work/life balance actually possible, whether you're a parent or not.

They're constantly striving to make the pay more fair and equitable. It's not perfect, but pay has increased quite a lot across the board since I began working here.

Pacifica invests in their employees with tons of high-quality training opportunities and fun social activities. Everyone celebrates one another's achievements, which is just nice.

The work is extremely meaningful, and the new CEO has an inspiring vision. When she/we make a mistake in how we handled a project, she hears out the employees all the way to the frontline to really dig in, learn from it and do better in the future, not continue to make the same mistakes that hurt clients and staff. Working at Pacifica means you get to actually lead change and innovation in the housing sector, which is pretty cool.

Full disclosure, if you asked me to write this review 3 years ago, it would not be the one I am writing today. If you wrote Pacifica off years ago, now might be the time to give em another chance.

Pacifica is a unique organization serving an extremely diverse clientele. The majority of Pacifica's rental units are family and middle income oriented with some low income options. It also has subsidized units which require collaboration with BC Housing. However, a large amount of Pacifica's staff represents outreach workers and housing support workers assisting individuals to maintain tenancies within our Supported Housing sites and in the private market through rent subsidies and case management. This makes for a complex and diverse company in it's skills and services provided.
Having undergone leadership change at most levels of the company since the start of 2020, the feeling "on the ground" continues to improve. Weaknesses and strengths have been identified and a more fact based approach to improving internally has already had beneficial impact on moral. Wages have been raised to meet "living wage employer" standards across the entire organization. Transparency from leadership has increased 10 fold with the change over and has created an increased sense of job security internally, something that was lacking previously. 
There are certainly still "growing pains" but the organization is heading in a much more positive direction than 1 year ago. 

Great place to gain experience, lots of opportunities for growth (moving up to positions with greater responsibility and pay or training). Friendly co-workers. The work is very meaningful and rewarding in a lot of ways. Feels good to be a part of an organization that is providing important services for the community.

There was a lot of staff turnover and frequent change in procedures which made it hard to give consistent and fair service delivery at times. Experienced a lot of frustration from clients about organization. A lack of clear policy and procedure in some areas was stressful for me although this was slowly being addressed. Upside of that is there was room to influence and contribute to policy and room for flexibility within role.

The pay and benefits were really great for a Non-Profit organization.

In general co-workers were great but there were some pockets of unhealthy work culture (lots of gossiping, negativity towards clients) that needs to be addressed. CEO is really working to identify and improve issues in the workplace/organizationally.

My experience with the Nanaimo branch of Pacifica Housing has been nothing short of amazing. Working in this field can be very challenging and co-workers as well as management make sure to check in every time someone struggles with a traumatic or challenging incident. Over time this has created a very healthy and supportive work culture. Management is very qualified with their education backgrounds and they work very hard to empower the team to make their own choices instead of micro-managing (which is very common in other Nanaimo agencies working with this demographic). The clients we work with are amazing and I love how management encourages staff to leave the office and spend time in the moment, meeting our clients where they are at. The freedom given to support staff makes it very easy to build healthy professional relationships with the clients, which is very beneficial to our work. This is a very healthy and empowering work environment.

A typical day at work is worrying if you'll still have a job at the end of the day. The leadership does not seem to care about the staff, it is the most toxic environment I've ever worked in. The organization is led from the top through what I can only describe as bullying behaviour, fear, and even subtle intimidation; there are obvious favourites. Policies are ignored or not followed correctly, and there's no clear direction, it is as if the leadership just don't seem to care. This is not an open, trustworthy, or honest place to work, everything seems to be done behind closed doors. I would not recommend to anyone to come and work here, your privacy does not feel safe and the leadership have even sent out emails mentioning mental health issues of staff on extended sick leave, which is highly inappropriate. Could not leave this organization fast enough.

In virtue of exponential growth, Pacifica Housing continues to demonstrate extraordinary dedication to the people and families it serves. The organizations unique challenges have provided an abundance of humbling opportunities for personal and professional development.

It is clear, that the organization is focused on supporting the right people to facilitate industry leading standards in social development.
Compassion, dedication, resilience, expertise  and opportunities for growth keep me engaged. It's exciting to be a part of an Organization that is setting the benchmark in it's diverse roll, giving back to the community it serves.

Days can be long, little support from managers as they seem to be hardly around.
They seem to care more about looking good in order to get more funding for their projects than taking care of their residents.
Workplace culture is poor with a lot of favouritism to long term staff compared to the newer staff.
Hardest part of the job is the long hours and dealing with the residents/clients and little to no office/management support and little to no education provided in mental health issues with the residents/clients. Its like they expect you to figure it out yourself.
The most enjoyable part of the job is providing a service to the residents/clients who may not normally receive these services

I was working by myself halfway through my first shift. I was expected to facilitate the housing of 50 high-risk people, plus all their visitors, and there was virtually nothing tangible in terms of expectations or what my actual scope of work was. This was compounded with the fact that management seemed totally disconnected from me until they had some sort of urgent, bizarre issue I was suddenly in trouble for.

I think most people working this job are set up to fail. That’s fine if this is your passion. It’s not if you’re trying to actually do your job. I have a lot of stories about working for this company that I won’t share here, but the vindictive nature of their HR and management is still a sore spot for me.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Support worker 19 salaries reported	$27.86 per hour
Service coordinator 5 salaries reported	$28.54 per hour
Housekeeper 4 salaries reported	$23.64 per hour
Cook 9 salaries reported	$26.35 per hour
Maintenance technician 4 salaries reported	$30.83 per hour

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