Housing Options Officer / Housing Support / Housing Advisor

Job Title: Housing Options Officer

Location: Norfolk

Salary: £26,999 - £30,507 per annum

Job Type: Full time, Fixed Term 12 months (37 hours per week)

Closing date: 9am on 12th July 2019

Interview Date: 23rd July 2019

At the Council, they believe that their people are their biggest asset and this is evidenced through their Gold Investors in People award. Their people tell them that this is a great place to work with an open culture and flexible learning and development opportunities.

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Housing Options team. Working as a Housing Options Officer you will be required to provide comprehensive housing advice and a homelessness prevention service.

Job Role:

Delivery of a local comprehensive housing options service providing information and assistance to clients to enable greater access to housing across all tenures. To assist clients in maintaining independent living in the most suitable accommodation available to them and preventing homelessness where possible.

Job Duties:

• To assist the Housing Options Manger to develop a comprehensive Housing Options Service
• To deliver a comprehensive Housing Options service through the provision of information and assistances to clients to enable greater access to suitable housing across all tenures with a particular emphasis on sustaining independent living and homelessness prevention
• Assess clients' needs that do not fall under the remit of the housing options service to appropriately signpost to other agencies and services. Assist in maintaining the high profile of the service through attendance at meetings with partner agencies, forums, and networking opportunities as appropriate
• To receive, assess and verify applications for the Your Choice Your Home register, to include identification of applicants who would benefit from additional housing options information and assistance, undertaking home visits where necessary. Provide information to applicants enabling them to determine how long they are likely to have to wait for an offer of social housing through Register
• Assist in the development and implementation of alternative systems of allocating affordable housing
• Develop and maintain good working relationships with private landlords in the district through regular liaison and operation of relevant schemes including rent/deposit guarantee scheme, private leased scheme and direct lettings scheme with a view to increasing access to this sector for vulnerable households
• Identify clients who would benefit from support to secure and sustain independent living or from supported housing and make appropriate referrals to available services
• Receive, assess and verify homelessness applications making recommendations to the Housing Options Manager as appropriate, taking into consideration the Homelessness legislation, the Homelessness and Allocations Code of Guidance and relevant case law
• Make provision for homeless households requiring temporary accommodation and effectively manage this accommodation through minimising void levels and maximising rental income
• To take responsibility for your own Health and Safety at work and that of other persons who may be affected by your actions
• Any other work required and as directed within the confines of the existing grading and post

Key Requirements:

• Experience of working within a housing needs / housing options / homelessness prevention / assessment role within a local authority housing department or equivalent
• Knowledge of options / interventions for homelessness prevention. Knowledge of the homelessness legislation and related codes of guidance and case law
• Experience of working in partnership with other statutory and voluntary organisations
• A good working knowledge of the districts housing market including private rented & welfare benefits
• Educated to GCSE level or equivalent
• Corporate Membership of the Chartered Institute of Housing or equivalent professional membership
• Full Driving licence
• Have undertaken recent training in housing law updates
• Good interpersonal and communication - oral and written (reports/letters/notices/records)
• Negotiation, understanding complex information
• Good keyboard and a basic level understanding on information technology office based software
• Able to manage and organise their workload including a range of competing and complex priorities
• Enthusiastic and self-motivated

To apply for the role please click the APPLY button and further information will be sent to your email.

Candidates with experience of; Housing Options Officer, Social Housing Advisor, Homelessness Officer, Housing Needs Officer, Housing Officer, Housing Support Officer, Housing Assistant, Housing Officer, Housing Services, Customer Housing Assistant, Social Housing Assistant, Supported Housing Officer, Social Housing Worker, Housing Administrator will be considered for this role.