Opus People Solutions on behalf of West Northamptonshire Council are recruiting for an Accommodation Officer to join their team on a temporary contract

Start Date:

ASAP

Length:

1-2 Months initially with scope to carry on.

Working Location:

The Guildhall, Northampton

Working Hours:

37

Overall purpose of the role:

To provide a high quality, responsive, customer-focused housing management and lettings service for homeless households living in temporary accommodation, ensuring that all homes are well-managed, are maintained in a safe and habitable condition and meet all statutory requirements in respect of fire safety, amenities and health and safety.
To ensure that all temporary accommodation is allocated in a manner that is equitable, in line with the Council’s policies and procedures, makes the most efficient and effective use of resources and helps to minimise the use and cost of temporary accommodation.
To promote the full range of affordable housing options and ensure that residents of temporary accommodation receive the advice, help and support they need to sustain their accommodation, become more independent and achieve their full potential.

Main Responsibilities:

To provide a high quality, responsive, customer-focused housing management and lettings service for homeless households living in temporary accommodation and ensure that all homes are well-managed, are maintained in a safe and habitable condition and meet all statutory requirements in respect of fire safety, amenities and health and safety.
In doing this, the Temporary Accommodation Officer will:
1. Ensure that all of the temporary accommodation that the Council uses is safe, clean, well-managed and in a good state of repair, and that it is allocated in a manner that is equitable, complies with the Council’s policies and procedures, makes best use of resources and helps to minimise the use and cost of temporary accommodation.
2. Develop and maintain close working relations with other services and organisations in order to facilitate the flow of information, encourage collaboration and co-operation, achieve the prompt resolution of complex problems and secure the help, advice and support that is needed to empower and enable residents of temporary accommodation to become more independent and move successfully into settled accommodation.
3. Contribute to the drafting and implementation of the Temporary Accommodation Team’s annual work plan, ensuring that progress is closely monitored and that all of the service priorities set out in the work plan are met.
4. Ensure that all data entry and case recording is accurate and complete, and that it is undertaken within agreed timescales, in order to assist performance monitoring, the analysis of trends and the completion of internal and external returns, including the government’s quarterly HCLIC return.
5. Work collaboratively and proactively with the Homelessness Reduction Team and the Social Lettings Agency to provide efficient, joined-up services and temporary accommodation that meets the needs of homeless households and the Council.
6. Undertake temporary accommodation sign-ups, ensuring that every homeless household is provided with comprehensive advice and guidance on all aspects of the accommodation (including the weekly charges, the tenancy / licence conditions and the responsibilities of the housing supplier and the Council) and, if they require help in meeting their weekly charges, they are helped to complete a Housing Benefit claim.
7. Ensure that homeless households living in temporary accommodation are helped and encouraged to comply with their licence or tenancy conditions but, where there is a serious breach of those conditions or the Council has discharged its homelessness duty, the accommodation is withdrawn or recovered as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
8. Meet regularly with the Temporary Accommodation Team Leader to review
performance in order to ensure a consistently high standard of work and customer care, an equitable distribution of the workload and the effective monitoring of performance against targets.
9. Undertake regular visits and inspections to ensure that all of the temporary
accommodation that the Council uses is being maintained in a good condition and has not been sub-let or abandoned and that, where it has been sub-let or abandoned, possession is recovered and the Council’s homelessness duty is discharged.
10. Ensure that a comprehensive, up-to-date inventory and schedule of condition (including photographs) is maintained in relation to every property that is leased or owned by the Council and is being used as temporary accommodation.

Qualifications/Experience Needed:

  • A good understanding and awareness of housing issues, and of government policy relating to housing and homelessness.
  • Knowledge of landlord and tenant law, landlords’ repairing obligations and the grounds for possession.
  • Experience of casework management.