Job Description

Housing Solutions Officer

Kingston

The purpose of the role is to work proactively and collaboratively with households who are homeless or threatened with homelessness to provide comprehensive advice and assist them to prevent their homelessness by retaining their current housing where possible, or otherwise to help them to relieve their homelessness by helping them to secure alternative accommodation.

Key activities

To ensure that all aspects of the Housing Solutions Service are delivered effectively in line with legislation and statutory guidance, policies, procedures and protocols.

To provide high quality advice and assistance and ensure homelessness is prevented wherever possible by providing effective advice.

To ensure that all homelessness investigations are undertaken in accordance with statute, the Code of Guidance, case law, local authority agreements and Council policy.

To liaise with other departments in terms of reaching solutions for patients being discharged from hospital.

To manage a caseload of applicants who have approached the Council for assistance under the Homelessness Reduction Act, keeping your caseload under review and taking timely action to minimise the time in temporary accommodation and ensuring the Council's duties are met within statutory timescales.

To make decisions with respect to homelessness applications and to ensure the efficient referral of cases for longer term temporary accommodation to the Housing Access service where the Council has accepted a duty.

To ensure accommodation is provided to qualifying homeless applicants at point of homelessness accessing accommodation suppliers provided through the Housing Supply team