Homelessness Prevention Officer
Borehamwood
£25 per hour
Hybrid - 3 months
Tate Recruitment are delighted to be working alongside a local authority, helping to recruit a
Homelessness Prevention Officer into their team.
Are you looking for your next role to provide support to those that need it most?
Do you have experience of working in social housing or homelessness services?
If you want to make a difference within your career then this position is perfect for you.
What you will be doing?
To provide an effective homelessness prevention service on behalf of the Council offering a full range of housing advice and housing options both in the private and public sector in line with the requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
To undertake detailed investigation into all homelessness applications in accordance with the legislation and statutory guidance and make decisions in cases where homelessness cannot be prevented.
To ensure that the Councils' responsibilities to pro-actively prevent and relieve homelessness are effective and meet best practice, working with stakeholders to identify those threatened with homelessness at an early stage.
Main Duties
- To work with customers referred by the Housing Options Team who are homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days in a pro-active way to prevent homelessness including developing, updating and reviewing customer's Personalised Housing Plans.
- To seek solutions to a person's housing situation where necessary through carrying out home visits, contacting and meeting with others involved with their circumstances including social workers and other professionals to seek collaborative solutions to housing issues.
- To provide expert advice and assistance to people with housing problems, particularly those living in the private rented sector, and take action to prevent homelessness.
- To investigate and take steps to resolve landlord/tenants disputes, seeking to negotiate and conciliate wherever possible and ensuring that all relevant parties are aware of their rights, responsibilities and remedies. It involves the gathering of evidence and preparation of prosecution files to enable the Council to prosecute successfully where appropriate.
- Where homelessness cannot be prevented to complete investigations into the housing circumstances of applicants in order to establish the Council's obligations to relieve their homelessness through provision of temporary accommodation.
- Prepare all relevant documentations from homeless and priority need clients and refer them to the Temporary Accommodation Team for placement.
- To liaise effectively with external agencies, including landlords, solicitors and benefit agencies.
- To manage a personal caseload and maintain accurate and detailed casework records and maintain a case file for each individual case presenting as homeless or threatened with homelessness and make all necessary entries to the Homelessness computer system (Locata), ensuring all relevant fields are completed for statistical reporting.
- To liaise with representatives of other local statutory voluntary and commercial organisations' to achieve maximum support and co-operation and to represent the Council at meetings of voluntary organisations as requested.
What you need?
- Experience of working with the homeless and giving information and advice both in person and in writing.
- Experience of working in social housing/homelessness services
- Experience of carrying out interviews, investigations, making enquiries, negotiations and mediation and having casework responsibility.
- Working knowledge of relevant legislation
- Takes a customer service approach to service delivery
- Able to effectively liaise with customers, colleagues and outside bodies in writing, by telephone and face to face
- Able to extract information using interviewing techniques
- Driving licence and access to a vehicle for work purposes
Please be aware this advert will remain open until the vacancy has been filled. Interviews will take place throughout this period, therefore we encourage you to apply early to avoid disappointment.
Tate is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.
Tate is committed to promoting equal opportunities. To ensure that every candidate has the best experience with us, we encourage you to let us know if there are any adjustments we can make during the application or interview process. Your comfort and accessibility are our priority, and we are here to support you every step of the way. Additionally, we value and respect your individuality, and we invite you to share your preferred pronouns in your application.