Temporary Accommodation Caseworker

Hull City Council • Toronto, ON

1d • £32,597 - £35,412 • Hybrid

About The Position

This is a Full Time Permanent Position for 2 individuals. The role involves delivering a high-quality, empathetic temporary accommodation (TA) and homelessness advice and assistance service. The focus is on ensuring the customer's experience is paramount, minimizing time spent in TA, and ensuring sustainable housing solutions to prevent repeat homelessness. Responsibilities include arranging TA, investigating homelessness cases under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, providing advice, managing customer expectations, and discharging statutory duties. The role also involves managing TA licenses, dealing with breaches, arranging property turnarounds and furnishings, and liaising with other teams for crisis support. The post holder will make decisions on complex cases, provide some supervision, and occasionally deputize for the Temporary Accommodation Team Leader. The Housing Access Service acts as the primary point of contact for housing in the city, offering comprehensive advice and options to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping, find sustainable housing solutions, and allocate council homes efficiently.

Requirements

• Must be able to carry out work in a range of settings including council offices, customers’ homes or community settings.
• Customer base includes clients experiencing trauma, addiction and those who can be hard to engage and/or present with challenging behaviour (emotional, obstructive, verbally aggressive and hostile).
• Arranging TA for use at short notice and in crisis situations.
• Holding a personal caseload to see through to conclusion.
• Advising customers on a range of issues relating to their onward accommodation options.
• Identifying and facilitating mitigations that will support them in TA and prevent repeat homelessness.
• Carrying out interviews, mediation and negotiation with accommodation providers.
• Advising the customer of their rights in respect of the Homelessness Reduction Act and the council’s Allocations Policy.
• Supporting with benefit claims and raising repairs where appropriate.
• Dealing with tenancy breaches in accordance with agreed protocols.
• Liaising closely with Housing Management Team colleagues where required.
• Signing customers up to TA licences and welcoming them to the property.
• Arranging furniture packs, utilities, safety checks and décor.
• Using a company credit card to purchase incidental items as required in accordance with agreed protocols.
• Liaising with the council’s or external contractors as and when appropriate.
• Driving between many different locations, citywide and at short notice on a daily basis.
• Carrying out affordability assessments.
• Arranging tenancy support in TA or their onward property.
• Benefit maximisation advice and assistance.
• Arranging furniture packages and providing incidental items within agreed protocols.
• Assessing the level of cleaning required, replacement of any items, levels of damage and/or stolen items and any repairs.
• Arranges for the remedial works to be carried out and/or purchases replacement items in accordance with agreed protocols.
• Follows up any damage or theft with the appropriate action in respect of the customer’s status on the Council’s housing list.
• Making decisions where the circumstances are complex and there are risk issues or wider implications to consider.
• Decisions around intentionality, appeals against decisions about reasonable offers and priorities being removed.
• Taking action to evict from TA and responding to initial customer feedback.
• Collates statistics where required regarding team activity to feed into performance management activity.
• Ensures that the required information is fed back to government HCLIC (homelessness) returns.
• Co-ordinates that of the team appropriately by having a wider view of team and service pressures.
• Linking in with colleagues across the Housing Access Service and beyond (e.g. Housing Sustainment Officers to support them to demonstrate improved behaviour in their TA, or Mental Health Social Workers) as appropriate.
• Carries out some straightforward supervision tasks to the Temporary Accommodation Support Officer, such as coaching or sickness return to work interviews.
• Occasionally deputises for the team leader in their absence.
• Delivering information presentations to a range of people to promote the service and improve partnership working and the management of customer expectations.
• Promote and safeguard the welfare of children, young people and/or vulnerable adults.
• Personal responsibility for their own health, safety and wellbeing and that of other employees.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in temporary accommodation (TA) and homelessness advice and assistance service.
• Experience in investigating homelessness cases in accordance with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
• Experience in managing licenses of those in TA and dealing with breaches.
• Experience in arranging void turnarounds and furnishing of properties.
• Experience in liaising with other teams and service areas.
• Experience in making decisions on cases/issues of a more complex nature.
• Experience in supervision of team activity.
• Experience in deputising in the absence of a Team Leader.
• Experience in providing a comprehensive housing advice and options service.
• Experience in preventing homelessness and rough sleeping.
• Experience in helping customers find realistic and sustainable housing solutions.
• Experience in allocating available council homes in a timely way.
• Experience in dealing with customers experiencing trauma, addiction and those who can be hard to engage and/or present with challenging behaviour.
• Experience in supporting with benefit claims and raising repairs.
• Experience in dealing with tenancy breaches in accordance with agreed protocols.
• Experience in arranging emergency TA, often with little or no notice.
• Experience in signing customers up to TA licenses and welcoming them to the property.
• Experience in arranging furniture packs, utilities, safety checks and décor.
• Experience in using a company credit card to purchase incidental items.
• Experience in liaising with the council’s or external contractors.
• Experience in driving between many different locations, citywide and at short notice on a daily basis.
• Experience in carrying out affordability assessments.
• Experience in arranging tenancy support in TA or their onward property.
• Experience in benefit maximisation advice and assistance.
• Experience in arranging furniture packages and providing incidental items.
• Experience in carrying out temporary accommodation property inspections.
• Experience in assessing the level of cleaning required, replacement of any items, levels of damage and/or stolen items and any repairs.
• Experience in arranging for remedial works to be carried out and/or purchasing replacement items.
• Experience in following up any damage or theft with the appropriate action.
• Experience in making decisions on cases where the circumstances are complex and there are risk issues or wider implications to consider.
• Experience in making decisions around intentionality, appeals against decisions about reasonable offers and priorities being removed.
• Experience in taking action to evict from TA and responding to initial customer feedback.
• Experience in administering workload efficiently ensuring accurate and professional information is recorded on systems.
• Experience in collating statistics where required regarding team activity.
• Experience in ensuring that the required information is fed back to government HCLIC (homelessness) returns.
• Experience in prioritising own workload and co-ordinating that of the team.
• Experience in providing advice and practical support to applicants who may be facing barriers to services.
• Experience in linking in with colleagues across the Housing Access Service and beyond.
• Experience in carrying out straightforward supervision tasks.
• Experience in representing the team at multi-agency meetings and events.
• Experience in delivering information presentations.
• Experience in promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children, young people and/or vulnerable adults.
• Knowledge of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated legislation.

Responsibilities

• Provides a professional, empathetic and high-quality service in response to customers approaching the service for advice and assistance which may be in person, over the phone, in writing or via IT systems.
• Responds to enquiries and gives advice in accordance with council policies and procedures and the Data Protection Act, which will include appropriately managing customer expectations and challenging behaviour from some customers and liaising with partners where appropriate.
• Investigates and identifies the individual housing needs of customers who are homeless and living in TA to determine and discharge the Council’s statutory homelessness obligations.
• Manages the licences of those in TA. This includes, but is not limited to, supporting with benefit claims and raising repairs where appropriate and dealing with tenancy breaches in accordance with agreed protocols, liaising closely with Housing Management Team colleagues where required.
• Provides a responsive and flexible service to colleagues and customers to set up and arrange emergency TA, often with little or no notice.
• Ensures that future accommodation solutions found for the customer are as sustainable as possible by ensuring that issues are identified, and mitigations put in place.
• Carries out temporary accommodation property inspections as required whilst occupied and upon customers moving out, assessing the level of cleaning required, replacement of any items, levels of damage and/or stolen items and any repairs.
• Maintains an expert knowledge of wider Housing Access Team priorities and issues, relevant legislation, policies, procedures and trends in order to make decisions on cases that come through the Temporary Accommodation Team.
• Administers their workload efficiently ensuring accurate and professional information is recorded on systems as appropriate.
• Prioritises their own workload and co-ordinates that of the team appropriately by having a wider view of team and service pressures.
• Provides advice and practical support to applicants who may be facing barriers to services due to previous behaviour or other issues, ensuring that they are provided with appropriate options and advice in order to remedy their situation, linking in with colleagues across the Housing Access Service and beyond.
• Carries out some straightforward supervision tasks to the Temporary Accommodation Support Officer, such as coaching or sickness return to work interviews.
• Represents the team at multi-agency meetings and events as required.
• To promote and safeguard the welfare of children, young people and/or vulnerable adults.
• The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated legislation places responsibilities for health and safety on Hull City Council, as your employer and you as an employee of the council.

Benefits

• A competitive salary
• An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Initially 23 days annual leave depending on length of service.
• Eight public holidays per year
• Three additional days off, one in May/August and one during the Christmas/New year period
• Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods
• Supportive and forward-thinking culture
• Great career development opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed