Housing Assistant

Venesky-Brown’s client, a public sector organisation in Midlothian, is currently looking to recruit a Housing Assistant for a 6 month contract on a rate of £14.47/hour PAYE. This role will be a hybrid of working at home and in the office.
Responsibilities:
- Act as the main contact point and co-ordinator of telephony contact for the Housing Services Team.
- Interview and assess customers when accepting housing applications to the Common Housing Register.
- Explain other housing options / tenures available, as per the organisation’s web based housing options guide.
- Explain the organisation’s online house exchange service (Homeswapper).
- Make referrals to other external services and other departments.
- Accurately and timeously process housing application forms.
- Assess housing applicants’ needs, including points calculation and list categorisation, in accordance with the organisation’s Housing Allocation Policy. Collate this information for checking by another team member. 
- Maintain the organisation’s Common Housing Register, review housing applicant circumstances annually. 
- Update change of circumstances for housing applicants and notify other teams.  
- Upload photographs to Homeswapper website. Determine eligibility of requests to swap houses and request tenancy reports. Refuse applications where appropriate. 
- Approve applications for garage lock ups, garage sites, maintain and review waiting lists and allocate when available. Update Capita Housing system and notify technical staff when available to allocate. 
- Ensure all necessary paperwork is obtained and notes added to operating systems for audit purposes, performance monitoring and statistical reporting.
- Create spreadsheets where required to monitor service improvements and provide performance information to customers. 
- Develop and maintain links with other service providers and services dealing with individuals eg social work, education, property services and external agencies eg police, tenancy support services, housing associations &  local authorities.
- Assist the Housing Services Team Leader and Housing Officer Team to discharge duties as required.
- General office duties, collection and delivery of mail, order stationary, organisation of various meetings and subsequent distribution of minutes as required.
Essential Skills:
- Homepoint Level 2 or 2 Highers, including English, or SVQ equivalent combined with necessary experience.
- Knowledge of MS Office or similar Spreadsheet and Word processing applications, Capita, W2, Integra, and Uniform.
- The jobholder must have previous experience in working in housing and be able to demonstrate they have extensive knowledge of housing options available and Local Authority’s policy and procedure and a range of intervention for social needs of tenants.
Desirable Skills:
- A diploma in Housing Studies is a desirable qualification.
If you would like to hear more about this opportunity please get in touch.