Accommodation Officer

Portsmouth City Council's Housing Needs, Advice & Support Service works directly with customers to help deal with housing issues and prevent homelessness in the city. We are a busy front-line service dealing directly with customers, many of whom are vulnerable and/or facing homelessness. The service assess and advise customers on the Housing Needs, Advice & Support available to them, provide support services to vulnerable people and rough sleepers, provide temporary accommodation and link with providers to help people move into more permanent accommodation. The Accommodation & Allocations team provide the link into accommodation for those that approach the council. This includes temporary accommodation for the homeless and links to external housing providers, including housing associations and private sector landlords, who the council allocates housing to.

• A good understanding of all relevant legislation relating to the temporary housing of homeless people, and of tenancy legislation
• An awareness of the diversity within Portsmouth's private housing market, and the options for temporary accommodation.
• Demonstrate experience of building a positive rapport with customers. Demonstrate an ability of working with customers in a challenging front-line service and be comfortable visiting customers in their home.
• Understand the demands of the customer, prioritise and respond accordingly, whilst tailoring your approach to the needs of different individuals.
• Demonstrate examples of how you would provide help and support to our customers to enable them to meet their responsibilities as a tenant and actions you may take as a consequence of a tenant not adhering to the tenancy agreement.
• Be able to keep calm and stay objective when dealing with sensitive / challenging situations and be able to effectively manage challenging customers.
• Be pro-active and highly motivated with the ability to work quickly, accurately and consistently when under pressure, managing your time effectively and be able to manage conflicting priorities appropriately.
• Can understand the customers' needs and translate them into finding the right accommodation
• Be able to effectively communicate to customers, colleagues, departments, agencies and councillor enquiries both verbally and in writing. Ensuring your record keeping always acts as a clear audit trail of your decision making, supporting the strong ownership of your patch.
• Be able to work independently in a focused, diligent and transparent manner.
• Good written and verbal communication skills and have an attention to detail
• Be competent with using Microsoft software including Excel, Word and Outlook and be able to use IT systems to keep clear, accurate, concise and methodical records.
• Having access to a car daily in order to be able to support customers effectively would be of benefit.
  
  We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:
• A generous pension scheme
• Up to 31 days annual leave per year + bank holidays
• We offer flexible working options including hybrid working with a minimum of two days office based per week pro rata, giving you the flexibility to work up to three days at home every week. Hybrid working is dependent on the role and service needs, exact details will be discussed with you at interview.
• A range of retail discounts via our reward portal offering discounts at retailers including IKEA, Currys, Tesco
• Free Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellbeing support
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships
• Potential to purchase additional annual leave
• Business travel support and initiatives, including bike loans