Overall Role Purpose:

• 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.
• To 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.
• To provide an effective, professional homelessness service including the assessment and investigation of homeless approaches and applications in line with the Councils’ statutory duties under Housing Act 1996 Part 7 and relevant case law.
• To work with customers to develop, update and review Personalised Housing Plans for customers on behalf of the council in light of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. Working with customers to implement these plans to ensure that homelessness is prevented or relieved through active interventions and pursuit of effective housing options.
• To play an integral role in the reduction of expenditure on temporary accommodation by ensuring decisions are made, taking into account the direct as well as wider cost implications for the Council.
• To take responsibility for the recording of high quality, key data on homelessness for submission to the Department for Communities and Local Government ensuring key trends on homelessness, the causes and solutions are available for analysis locally and to the Government to measure the impact of homelessness nationally
• Where possible, use influencing and problem-solving skills to negotiate with householders, landlords and accommodation providers in order to ensure the accommodation remains open to those threatened with homelessness for the maximum period of time so that effective housing options casework can be undertaken.
• Where possible, use influencing and problem solving skills to negotiate the withdrawal of the threat of homelessness and extension of the right to occupy so that homelessness is averted.
• To develop a range of effective housing solutions for customers through the use of creative thinking and via the building of relationships with accommodation providers.
• Thorough understanding of inner city housing issues
• Understanding of access to social housing locally
• Awareness of issues and initiatives facing local authority housing
• Good knowledge of relevant Lettings, Homelessness and Housing Act legislation including security of tenure and private tenants’ rights
• Good knowledge of relevant case law and Codes of Guidance
• A good knowledge of services, benefits and support available to applicants experiencing housing problems

Experience

• Experience of providing an effective advice service to members of the public
• Experience of implementing an equality and diversity approach to service delivery
• Experience of working in a team
• Experience of working in a demanding front line customer service environment
• Experience of dealing effectively with confrontational and challenging situations
• Experience of working with vulnerable customers and providing appropriate support Experience of working with homeless customers and those in housing need
• Experience of carrying out interviews, investigations, negotiations
• Experience of effective record keeping including electronically
• Experience of successfully working to performance targets and deadlines

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