Housing Officer

We're looking for a kind, compassionate and resilient Housing Officer to join our Homelessness service in Brent.

£28,538.00 per annum, working 40 hours per week. Benefits include 25 days Annual Leave, pension schemes, staff discounts, healthcare and career progression.

Want to feel like you have an exciting future? You'll feel at home here.

Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That's why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren't token gestures - we've thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.

A dynamic, friendly and innovative care and support business known for its life-changing services is looking for a dedicated and target driven Income and Housing Officer who can maximise the organisation's rental income collection, effectively manage rent arrears and deal with other breaches of the occupancy agreement.

Managing a patch of 4 units across our services you will ensure that challenging rent collection targets are met but also that everything is done to avoid eviction. Your personal qualities are as important in this role as your work experience.

Working alongside Operational Colleagues, the Income and Housing Officer will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of generic Housing Management services across their patch with the main focus on Income Collection and some ASB management. You will be expected to meet tight KPI's increasing rent collection and carry out rent arrears actions at all stages from the initial warning letters to the eviction stage.

What you'll do:

1. Take responsibility for maximising rent collection across a defined patch of Look Ahead's portfolio of properties ensuring that rent collection targets are met and tenancies sustained.
2. Advise operational teams on their support related arrears management activities, including holding local surgeries with tenants and staff, taking direct control of higher level and more complex arrears cases.
3. Proactively monitor all current and former accounts within the defined patch and make recommendations to the Contract Manager for appropriate former accounts to be written off or referred to Look Ahead's debt collection agency.
4. Ensure that the rent collection function is carried out both sensitively and in a timely fashion so as to avoid the build up of excessive arrears and record all case details accurately.
5. Ensure that all sign ups within the defined patch are done accurately on the correct type of tenancy and at the correct rent and service charge levels.
6. Prepare files and documents for legal action and present cases in County Court hearings for possession claims, money judgements.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead.

About you:

1. An understanding of the needs of customers who have experienced homelessness and who may also have support needs.
2. Excellent time management skills to systematically monitor arrears and complete other tasks in a logical and systematic way.
3. Excellent communication skills and experience of dealing with vulnerable people in a sensitive, friendly and clear manner.
4. An understanding of how to effectively deal with breaches of occupancy such as anti-social behaviour and abandonment.

What you'll bring:

1. Experience of monitoring rent accounts and managing rent arrears.
2. Experience of using computerised rent systems to monitor arrears and record information.
3. Extensive knowledge of welfare benefits, especially housing benefit.
4. Experience of liaising with housing benefit departments, the DWP and other external agencies.

About us:

Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over 120 services, providing support to around 6000 customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness, young people and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.

We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:

• We focus on Excellence and innovation.
• We are Caring and Compassionate.
• We are Inclusive and Trusted.
• We work in Partnership and are One-Team.

Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.

We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.

Please see our website for full Job description.