Job Details
Role Purpose
To provide a high-quality service for households in housing need irrespective of tenure; emphasis on the prevention/relief of homelessness and the provision of advice and support to achieve best outcomes; engaging with customers to deliver housing services that work for them.
The role is at the forefront of the prevention of homelessness in the borough. Officers will work with a full range of customers and scenarios but may specialise in teams providing an outreach service, or those that focus on single people or families.
Main Responsibilities
People
1. To reduce homelessness by employing a range of behaviours aimed at building trusting and productive relationships with customers that enable officers to persuade, influence and support them to make positive choices and fully engage with realistic housing options to prevent and relieve homelessness.
2. To carry a caseload and provide an effective, professional service which includes offering customers in housing need a full range of advice and interventions related to their housing options in the private and public sector with the aim of ensuring a comprehensive service to prevent homelessness.
3. To provide an effective, professional homelessness service including the assessment and investigation of cases in line with the Council’s statutory duties under the Housing Act 1996 (as amended) and relevant case law.
4. Undertake affordability assessments with customers to enable appropriate advice to be given to residents about where they can afford to live, how they might maximise benefits and work in partnership with other organisations where employment would be a solution to the housing need.
5. Use influencing and problem-solving skills to negotiate with customers, excluders, landlords and agents in order to ensure that accommodation remains open to those threatened with homelessness for the maximum period of time so that effective casework can be undertaken and a range of tools, including accessing the Homelessness Prevention Fund utilised.
6. To work with customers to develop, update and review statutory Personalised Housing Plans pursuant to the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, and to work with customers to implement these plans to ensure that homelessness is prevented or relieved through active interventions and pursuit of effective housing options.
7. To refer customers for specialist support as necessary, for example for help with substance misuse issues.
8. To make statutory determinations on main duty homelessness decisions including main duty approvals and intentionality that will withstand legal challenge and support the reputation of the organisation.
9. To provide an efficient service offer to single applicants where there may not be a statutory duty to accommodate. This should include advice to maintain their current accommodation and to identify other options in supported accommodation, private sector, refuge or other type to prevent or defer homelessness. To request the provision of temporary accommodation following robust checks into the eligibility for this.
10. Assess and determine requests for interim accommodation pending review and appeal via the application of statutory legislation and to respond with high quality decision letters able to withstand legal challenge.
11. Conduct interviews and assessments at various external locations including, but not restricted to, customers’ homes, partner agency offices, community centres as required.
12. To create innovative solutions to meet housing need, e.g. moving a household from an unsuitable property due to medical conditions and liaising with landlord to retain the property for another household in housing need by use of the Prevention Fund, or supporting a perpetrator of domestic abuse to secure accommodation so that the victim survivor can remain in the home (where safe to do so).
Umbrella hourly rate – £26.48
