They earn sufficiently to have funds to INVEST. 

I am a traveling PT and have lived with strangers my whole career.

We are on forbearance for our home until the end of my Americorps position (I applied to the 10 month Americorps program when the restaurant I was working for shut down for COVID, I earn a small stipend now....) so I don't know if 'buying our second property' should be my goal.Here is what I know: I want to focus on value-add buy-and-hold investments for the primary focus of providing affordable housing.                                

I am finally seeing the fruits of my labor with the passive income I am earning and I don't want this end any time soon.

I’m unsure if I need to just focus on school now and switch gears after I get a career established, or if there may be another way to start sooner.

When you increase the rents for the 20 units you immediately increase the value of the building e.g. 20 x $30 = $600 per month additional income X 12 months = $7200 per year X GM 18 = $129,000 the amount you just increased the value of the building plus the additional $7200 per year = a total profit the first year = $129,000 + $7200 = $132,200 + the cashflow you was already earning and I will guess it was $200 per month for each unit = = $4,000 per month x 12 months = $48,000 per year.

I think I am at a point in my professional and investing career where I do not want to increase my exposure to New York, I also don’t feel comfortable to seek investments out of state by myself (perhaps with a partner).

I am not going into each conversation looking for a mentor but instead going in thinking how can I add value to them and how could I leverage their skills to assist me along in my career as well.

In the case of you needing immediate guaranteed money as I suspect, I would break my way into a corporate career, something like at a help desk. 

At least at the beginning of their career.