Housing Options Officer

As a Housing Options Officer, you'll be responsible for supporting the Council to carry out homelessness duties under The Housing Act 1996, as amended by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. In this fast-paced service area, you will need to be creative, adaptable, and hardworking in order to prevent homelessness and provide excellent case management services to our customers.

The main duties of this role include:

• Completing assessments with customers who are homeless or threatened with homelessness



• Making decisions in line with homelessness legislation and communicating to applicants in writing



• Mediating between applicants and landlords



• Working on a rota basis to cover front line homelessness functions


• Providing advice, guidance and signposting
  
  Previous experience of working within Housing, Homelessness, Voluntary and Advisory sectors is desirable but not essential. We are also keen to receive applications from candidates with lived experience of homelessness.
  
  Coventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.


We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.

At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5100 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies


• Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.


• Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.


• Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.


• Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.


• Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.


About the team we are recruiting to

The Housing and Homelessness Service is a very busy environment and faces several challenges to meet the housing needs of citizens of Coventry. The team have grown significantly during the last 12 months and this reflects the fact that Housing & Homelessness are now a key council priority.

The team are responsible for the delivery of the following service functions:

• Provision of the statutory homeless service



• Provision of temporary accommodation



• Management of the housing register



• Co-ordination of support to citizens rough sleeping



• Commissioning of homeless services, and



• Responsibility for housing strategy


The Council has a strategic vision that is clearly set out in both the Housing & Homelessness and the Rough Sleeping Strategies which were both approved in 2019.

In July 2022 the Housing and Homelessness Service became the proud recipient of an LGC award for large team of the year.

By becoming part of an award winning team who are focused on preventing households from becoming homeless as well as providing tailored support and interventions when someone does become homeless, this is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to some of the most vulnerable people in our city., Guaranteed Interview Scheme - As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans


• Are currently in care or have previously been in care


• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition


For full details on the application process please read the attached document labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'. If there is any evidence of a candidate using AI to complete their application, then the application will be rejected unless the candidate can provide a justification which the Council considers to be reasonable.