Housing Inclusion Project Officer – Housing

Job Description

Job Category: Housing

Job location: Priory House, Monks Walk, Chicksands, Shefford, Central Bedfordshire, SG17 5TQ, Central Bedfordshire Council

Hours per week: 37

Start date: Immediate start

Salary: £17.00 per hour

The position locations will be predominantly Dunstable, Houghton Regis, and Leighton Buzzard areas.

Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) has worked to enable the development of high quality, purpose-built appartements for affordable rent for people aged 55+, in great locations, some with on-site support and care. CBC has also redeveloped premises that will be used for Supported Accommodation for customers aged 18 years upwards.

The roles are twofold with re-purposing of CBC accommodation as an ongoing project, and managing a Supported Housing scheme with direction from the Supported Accommodation managers.

Your role is firstly, to maximise the potential for these new schemes to meet the housing aspirations of council tenants aged 55+. You will do this by-:

promoting knowledge about these new schemes using a range of channels and communication methods, in liaison with our comms team.

acting as a point of contact for people expressing an interest in the new schemes.

providing advice about affordability and income maximisation.

enabling visits and viewings.

liaising across operational teams to enable smooth, fast-tracked application, assessment and move-in processes, adding your capacity wherever its required.

In the course of this work, you will have lots of face-to-face and telephone contact with our tenants. As a representative of their landlord, you will need to be ready to listen as people talk about their wider housing concerns and aspirations, and you will liaise with operational teams in response to issues that have been brought to your attention. Following on from this, the project aims to repurpose dwellings that are vacated because of these moves in order to meet the needs of homeless and younger households.

You will record the outcome of all interactions accurately, and the insights that you glean from being in contact with our tenants will help to inform decisions around how our housing stock is used in the coming 2-5 years.

The second aim of this project is to provide support to customers placed in a Supported Housing scheme where you will be required to work with customers to promote independence and integration back into the community. Some of these customers may be challenging, however, the scheme in question will be let to customers on a sensitive let basis due to the surrounding neighbourhood.

You may also be asked to cover absences in teams carrying out risk assessment and support work with housing service customers who have disclosed Domestic Abuse, and in teams managing Housing First dwellings for people with a rough-sleeping history.

The specific aims of this temporary role may evolve in response to shifting operational pressures and our developing insights. However, the tasks will remain focused on housing-management project work to enable change and best use of resources.

We are looking for people with-:

Housing management experience.

the ability to build and manage relationships across a range of colleagues, customers and advocates.

the ability to apply a sound understanding of the allocation criteria for these new schemes (following a period of induction and training).

some expertise in assessing affordability and giving income maximisation advice will be an advantage.

the ability to manage expectations and share difficult information with clarity and respect.

The ability to support customers, make referrals to internal and external agencies, and signpost relevant services.

Able to identify people in crisis and have experience in safeguarding procedures.

Could you please respond to the following questions and upload the answers with your CV directly or as an attachment to your CV:

In 100 words or less, please give an example of a time when you have given advice to a customer, to help resolve a housing management problem.

In 100 words or less, please answer the following. You are planning a home visit to a council tenant. What information would you try to ascertain before you visit them?