Support Officer Homelessness Prevention & Advice (SCP 22)

Job Category:   Housing

Job location: High Street, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9SD,,
Elmbridge Borough Council
Hours per week: 36

Start date: Immediate start
Salary: £17.61 per hour

Minimum of 2x days in the office at Civic offices Esher


About the role
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You will carry out mainly administrative duties across the functions of the Housing Options Unit ( Social and Supported Housing, Homelessness Prevention and Advice, Private Rented and Temporary Accommodation Teams ) to help us accommodate and meet our legal obligations to those who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, to assess and meet housing need in accordance with our Allocations Policy
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You will work across all teams in the Housing Options Unit as required. Supporting the team who has the most demand at any given time.
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You will have regular telephone contact with applicants who are homeless or threatened with homelessness or in housing need and will be required to deal with a high volume of queries daily referring to specialists as required for complex cases.
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You will work support the service to maximise income for accommodation provided by the Unit and to assist in move on for all applicants.
The main purpose of the role:
1.
To provide administrative support across the activities of the Housing Options Unit for key areas to meet increased demand for the services provided primarily around homelessness and the Council’s Housing Register.
2.
To answer telephone calls across the three teams’ range of activities so a responsive service is maintained providing general advice, updating and maintaining records and responding to correspondence / emails.
3.
To make appointments for the Homelessness Prevention and Advice Team where a person is threatened with homelessness or homeless and as directed for the Private Sector and Temporary Accommodation Team and Social and Supported Housing Team
4.
To carry out functions to secure temporary accommodation for homeless households explaining conditions of placement, monitoring occupation and assist in maximizing income. To support the processes around the Guaranteed Rent Scheme (GRS) for private sector accommodation and to assist in debt recovery.
Specific duties and responsibilities
1 To work across the Unit in answering telephone calls responding to queries directly where possible giving appropriate advice or for more complex enquiries to take messages or pass to an officer in their specialist role. To respond to routine correspondence and provide background information for Councillor MP Ombudsman enquiries as directed.
2.
To be a point of contact for applicants or hoteliers for initial enquiries primarily at placement referring on to the Private Sector and Temporary Accommodation Team, as necessary.