Housing Initiatives Officer

12 Months Fixed Term/Secondment Opportunity with the possibility of extension (subject to funding)

Our Service:

Our service area covers the busy and diverse front-end of housing customer demand.  We service the Ealing housing register, offer high quality advice on housing options, and allocate social housing for our customers.

This is a challenging time for our service.  Demand is high and options are limited.  We need to combine efficiency with a first-class customer focussed service, as well as managing customer expectations.

The Job:

Due to the prevalent housing situation in the borough, it is paramount for Ealing Council  to ensure that the provision of social housing stocks goes to those who are genuinely in need. Therefore, this role will assist under occupying council tenants and single vulnerable homeless applicants in temporary accommodation move to accommodation that meets their needs thus releases their properties for other households and providing advice and support to households who are living in overcrowding situation. It is also an opportunity to work with a busy and hardworking team who are passionate in providing the best service to people who are homeless or who have housing problems.

For this role Ealing Council is looking for someone who is enthusiastic, resourceful, understands the current housing situation and has good knowledge of housing legal provisions. The individual must be flexible, have excellent negotiation and communication skills especially in dealing with vulnerable or challenging clients. Experience in providing support in holistic manner in housing environment is very desirable. Applicants must be willing to carry out unaccompanied visits and interviewing clients at their homes. This position requires the postholder to have full and clean UK driving licence.

Benefits of working for Ealing Council include:

• Local government pension scheme
• Flexible working policy
• Generous annual leave entitlement starting at 24 days per year plus bank holidays, rising to 30 days subject to local government continuous service  full time)
• Discounts with local businesses

This post is subject to Ealing Council's enhanced vetting process.

This role is deemed customer facing and as such you must have a command of spoken English which is sufficient to enable you to effectively perform the role.  This requirement relates to Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016.

Closing date: 20 December 2021