Braintree District Council has an exciting opportunity for a Housing Options Officer to join the team.
Location: Braintree, Essex
Salary: £32,330 to £35,750 per annum
Job Type: Full Time, fixed term until April 2025
Housing Options Officer – The Role:
We have an exciting opportunity for a Housing Options Officer to join our Housing and Community Services team.
We are looking for someone who is committed to providing a high quality, customer-focused service and will work with customers and partners to achieve positive outcomes.
Working as part of a busy team, you will provide a front-line service to individuals and families experiencing housing difficulties; both in person and by telephone. At this current time our teams are working a hybrid pattern i.e., a mixture of office and home working. The successful candidate will be required to work five days per week in Causeway House whilst completing induction training.
The main purpose of the role is to assess housing need and provide specialist advice in respect of all housing options in order to prevent and relieve homelessness. Your essential skills will include persuading and influencing, together with an ability to come up with creative solutions for a wide range of housing difficulties. However, when prevention and relief opportunities have been exhausted, you will be required to undertake investigations to determine the extent of the Council’s further statutory duties and ensure they are carried out. An ability to focus on the key issues, conduct the correct enquiries and write well-constructed, legally-sound decision letters is essential.
You will be required to participate in the Housing Options duty rota, responding to emergencies as required, and should also be flexible over working start/finish times to meet the demands of the service. In addition, you will be part of the team’s out-of-hours service, for which an additional payment is made.
Housing Options Officer – Key Responsibilities:
- To provide a comprehensive frontline service to customers seeking advice and assistance
with regards to their housing needs, irrespective of tenure, either in person or by telephone
- To participate in the Housing Options duty rota (including Traige) and respond to emergencies as required
- To take action to prevent and relieve homelessness, including visits to applicants’ parents, negotiation with landlords and mortgage companies, referral to other agencies and use of
the Council’s Homelessness Prevention Fund
- To provide customers with expert, professional, comprehensive advice and information on
all aspects of housing options work specific to their assessed needs: including undertaking basic financial and benefits assessments
- To produce Personal Housing Plans following assessment of needs; to monitor customers’ actions and to perform the authority’s actions
- To help customers access a range of housing opportunities, including social housing,
private rented accommodation, supported housing and shared/home ownership and to assess customers’ suitability for the Council’s Deposit Bond and/or Rental Loan schemes
- To liaise, establish, maintain and develop links with Social Care teams, health providers, Registered Providers, private landlords and other statutory or voluntary agencies as appropriate and ensure that referrals are made as necessary, recorded and followed up as required.
- To attend case conferences and joint assessment interviews with Social Care teams or
other organisations as necessary
- To facilitate Housing Advice Surgeries and provide out-reach services at other venues as required
- To undertake formal investigations under Pt V11 Housing Act 1996 (as amended) and to issue cogent s184 decision letters within required timescales
Housing Options Officer – You:
You will need to be an enthusiastic team player with strong interpersonal and computer skills, and have demonstrable experience of delivering advice and support to the public, as well as liaison with other statutory and public bodies.
You will be keen to help us develop the service in line with the Government’s current legislative agenda, focusing on solutions and open to new ideas. Previous experience of providing housing advice and applying relevant legislation is desirable.
Why choose Braintree District Council?
Braintree District Council is a great place to work and we pride ourselves on our creative, innovative and forward-thinking approach that is led by our staff. We are committed to having an engaged workforce who understand our strategy and how they can help deliver it.
Housing Options Officer – Benefits:
- Local Government Pension Scheme Defined Benefit Scheme
- Free Car Parking
- Health and Wellbeing Programme
- Payment of Professional Subscription
- Staff Discounts
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Career Path
- Flexible working opportunities
To submit your application for this exciting Housing Options Officer opportunity, please click ‘Apply’ now!