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Salary: £29,214 – £37,038
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time, 36 hours
Annual Leave: 27 Days
Location: Hybrid working across office/on-site

We have 3 new positions available to join the housing solutions team! This team is designed to support people while they are in temporary accommodation and help them take the next step in their housing journey and move on to move settled living arrangements.

You will work very closely with Housing Solutions Colleagues, Rehousing, Temporary Accomodation and Supply teams. You will spend some of your time in our offices in Kingston, but the majority of your time will be spent visiting people in our Temporary Accommodation across London & Surrey so you must have the ability to travel.

This is a highly varied role and your typical day can consist of:

  • Visiting people in temporary accommodation, supporting with day to day issues to ensure they can maintain the accommodation and at the same time helping them to actively look for alternative accomodation
  • Doing a lot of multi-agency work and negotiation with landlords
  • Having honest and open conversations with customers about their housing options
  • Helping people find alternative accommodation in the private rented sector

About Us
The Community Housing Service helps people secure and keep housing and avert crisis, we provide a range of housing and homelessness prevention support across Kingston. This is an exciting time to join us, we are transforming the service with a focus on a resilient and efficient service that prevents homelessness and puts customers at the heart.

This team consists of two Housing Solutions Managers and 11 staff and are based in our centrally located offices in Kingston. You will be joining a busy and hardworking team during a time of transformational change where every day offers an opportunity to make a positive difference.

We are looking for someone who enjoys assisting others and finding solutions for people, an understanding of housing and homelessness. You will need strong communication skills and ideally with case management skills. You will need to have previously worked with people needing support – this experience may have been gained in a local authority, housing association or charity.

This is an ideal job to step up into if you have face to face experience
with those in a housing crisis. Previous experience could be a visiting officer, a benefits advisor or a support worker.

In order to successfully deliver the responsibilities of the role, you will need to have:

  • Knowledge and understanding of the housing and support needs of homeless and housing applicants and tenants.
  • An understanding of tenants and landlords rights and responsibilities pertaining to the private rented sector.
  • Excellent knowledge of negotiation and mediation techniques and their practical application.
  • An understanding of the housing issues facing a high demand London local authority.
  • Experience of dealing with a diverse and vulnerable clientele, either face-to-face, on the phone or through email.
  • Experience of working within the private rented sector with a good understanding of both the needs of tenants and landlords.
  • Experience of the application and administration of welfare benefits, Housing Benefit and other related payments.

For more in-depth information about the role and other essential criteria, please refer to the job description and additional documents.

Our Offer To You
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

  • Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
  • Three volunteering days per year
  • Flexible and agile working arrangements
  • Comprehensive learning and development programme
  • Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
  • Interest free season ticket loans
  • Local Government Pension Scheme
  • Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
  • Zip car scheme
  • Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
  • Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
  • Subsidised gym membership

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