This title is part of the New York Hiring for Emergency Limited Placement Statewide Program (NY HELPS). For the duration of the NY HELPS Program, this title maybe filled via a non-competitive appointment, which means no examination is required but all candidates must meet the minimum qualifications of the title for which they apply. At this time, agencies may recruit and hire employees by making temporary appointments. In May 2024, if a temporary NY HELPS employee is satisfactorily performing in the position, the appointment will be changed from temporary pending Civil Service Commission Action to permanent non-competitive and the official probationary period will begin. At a future date (within one year of permanent appointment), it is expected employees hired under NY HELPS will have their non-competitive employment status converted to competitive status, without having to compete in an examination. Employees will then be afforded with all of the same rights and privileges of competitive class employees of New York State. While serving permanently in a NY HELPS title, employees may take part in any promotion examination for which they are qualified.
NON-COMPETITIVE MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
A bachelor's degree in a paralegal/legal assistant program from a regionally accredited college or university, or college or university accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) or one approved by the American Bar Association (ABA); and one year of subsequent full-time experience as a Paralegal/Legal Assistant or an associate degree in a paralegal/legal assistant program or a certificate in a paralegal/legal assistant program where either the degree or certificate was granted from a regionally accredited college or university, or college or university accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) or one approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) and two years of subsequent full-time experience as a Paralegal/Legal Assistant.
COMPETITIVE MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Must be reachable on the New York State Civil Service eligible list.
70.1 TRANSFER QUALIFICATIONS:
One year of permanent or contingent permanent in an eligible title for transfer determined to be similar by Civil Service. For transfers, a list of approved titles is available through Civil Service GOT-IT at https://careermobilityoffice.cs.ny.gov/cmo/gotit/. The GOT-IT site will inform you if your title is transferrable.
It is essential that candidates clearly and concisely indicate exactly how they meet the above minimum qualifications in their resume/email submission. Failure to show how you meet the minimum qualifications above may result in disqualification and removal from consideration.

Over the past few of years, DHCR's multifamily housing programs have undergone rapid and signification expansion with increasing intricacies. Under Governor Hochul's 5 year housing, the Agency will work to collaboratively through the Office of Finance and Development (OFD) and the Office of Housing Preservation (OHP) and the Office of Community Renewal (OCR create $1.5 billion dollars in supportive housing with our partner agencies, $1 billion for the construction of multifamily affordable housing, $450 million to preserve existing multi-family rental housing, $400 million to advance homeownership opportunities across the state, $300 million for senior housing; $250 million for energy efficiency in low income housing, $200 million to preserve public housing outside NYC and $105 million to preserve rural rental properties and mobile and manufactured home parks. The Office of Legal Affairs works closely with program staff to disburse this funding. Rapid expansion of affordable housing programs and funding in the state has generated a diverse and increased workload for the Albany Office of Legal Affairs. During this rapid expansion, the existing program processes have continued to have ongoing need, as the need for affordable housing has only increased in recent years.
Legal Assistant will provide principal paralegal and administrative support to the Michell-Lama appeals and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) unit as well as assist with paralegal and administrative support for the DHCR/HTFC transactional team. Legal Assistant will assist with maintaining and tracking correspondence and appeals from appellants and Housing Companies. Legal Assistant will support the real estate transactional team for the originating and refinancing Housing Trust Fund Corporation (HTFC) multi-family affordable housing projects and the Housing Trust Fund Office of Asset Management and may assist with FOIL processing of request and responses. They will possess advanced self-starting, time management, organizational, computer programming and word processing skills and must be capable of designing complex merge documents for the preparation of legal documents and use the internet to perform legal research and locate cases, statutes, regulations, legislation, tax information and law review articles as requested. The Legal Assistant must be able to create, organize and maintain MS Access and SharePoint databases as needed by the unit with the assistance of the IT unit. Familiarity with FOIL, appeals and/or real property closings and the document recording process is beneficial.

Please provide a current resume if interested in this position. Please note the vacancy ID in the subject line of your email when applying.
It is essential that candidates clearly and concisely indicate exactly how they meet the above minimum qualifications in their resume/email submission. Failure to show how you meet the minimum qualifications above may result in disqualification and removal from consideration.