Housing Options Officer

South Gloucestershire Council; West of England; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous annual leave

Wellbeing support

Staff discounts

Flexibility / work-life balance

Training and development

Job summary

South Gloucestershire Council is seeking a Housing Options Officer to provide housing advice and assist people who are homeless or at risk across the authority. You will assess housing needs, develop plans, and help people secure suitable accommodation.

The role involves preventing homelessness, determining eligibility under homelessness laws, coordinating with partners, and attending multi-agency conferences.

Qualifications

• Essential you have relevant practical housing experience and knowledge of legislation.
• Experience delivering housing remedies and homelessness services.
• Able to communicate effectively and demonstrate strong problem solving skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and adapt to issues as they arise.

Responsibilities

• Carry out assessments to determine housing needs, preferences and options, and develop an action plan.
• Help prevent homelessness or secure alternative housing by assessing complex cases.
• Assess eligibility for homelessness duties and issue decisions where appropriate.
• Coordinate multi-agency approaches and participate in multi-agency conferences.

Job description

How you'll make a difference

As a Housing Options Officer, you will provide advice and assistance to people across South Gloucestershire, who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, as well as supporting people to secure alternative housing.

What you will be doing

• It will be your responsibility to carry out assessments to determine people's housing needs, preferences and options, to develop a plan outlining the actions required to resolve their housing issues.
• You will help to prevent customers from becoming homeless or assist them to secure alternative housing, by assessing complex cases involving tenure rights, suitability of accommodation, financial assessment, medical needs, and the eligibility for homelessness prevention schemes.
• Where there are no alternative housing solutions, you will assess eligibility for assistance under homeless legislation to determine whether a homelessness duty is owed. You will also be required to issue negative decisions, recommend the acceptance of any duties under Part VII Housing Act 1996 and discharge duty where appropriate.
• Maintaining regular contact with housing applicants, you will facilitate access to relevant support services and investigate and coordinate multi-agency approaches, participating in multi-agency conferences where necessary.

What we need from you

• It is essential you have relevant practical housing experience and considerable knowledge of legislation. including Housing Act 1996 Part VII, landlord and tenant law.
• You must have experience of delivering housing remedies and homelessness services, understanding the needs of vulnerable people and minority groups.
• Given the elements of this role, it is essential you can communicate effectively and demonstrate strong problem solving skills, to address issues effectively.
• You will have experience in managing competing priorities and identifying problems as they arise, with the ability to address issues effectively.

What you need to know

• All applications will be initially reviewed and if you are shortlisted, you will be invited to complete a short psychometric assessment. If you are successful through this stage, you will be invited to an interview.
• This role is hybrid, with a mixture of working at our office in Kingswood, working from home and site visits.
• Please note that due to the nature of this role, it is a requirement of employment that a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained.
• You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle or have an alternative means of travel.

Interviews will be held on 6th November 2026.

How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different

• As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
• We know our team work best when they have balance in their lives, and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance.
• We invest in the careers of our people, and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work.
• What's special here is the strength of the team ethos, the support and the training.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
• We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life.
• We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.

We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

We're making a difference, be part of it!