Housing Advice Assistant

The Council has a duty to assess and support households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, helping them secure suitable housing solutions. This can involve working with a wide range of households, from families to single households, with many different levels of need and different backgrounds. We are looking for a Housing Advice Assistant to join our team as the first point of contact for households with housing needs. The successful candidate should have a passion for supporting people, be inquisitive to determine a households housing needs and able to work collaboratively with the team to identify housing solutions. Purpose of the Role:

• Act as the first point of contact for households in housing need, assessing their circumstances and identifying immediate solutions.
• Refer clients requiring more in-depth housing assistance to Housing Officers.
• Assess whether a household requires temporary accommodation and, if so, facilitate placement and sign-up arrangements.
• Support households in sustaining temporary accommodation, including assistance with service charge payments.
• Provide advice and guidance to customers on housing matters via email and phone.
• Work jointly with private sector housing team to identify breaches of the Renters Rights Act 2025
• Manage the Wyre Forest Home Choice social housing register, including registering applicants, assessing applications for reasonable preference, and administering the scheme.
  
  The post holder should be educated to A level standard (or equivalent) and have a minimum of five GCSE including Maths and English at A - C level (or equivalent)
• The post holder should have a minimum of one years' experience in working with customers, preferably in an advice or support role.
• Basic DBS is required for this role.
• You will be required to provide a suitable vehicle in connection with the duties of this post.
• Flexible approach to working hours, able to work outside normal office hours if necessary, including a requirement to be available for evening meetings.
• To work outside normal office hours from time to time as the demands of the post and emergencies dictate in additional to the out of hours rota. The out of hours rota is undertaken by the entirety of the team and each team member does a one week period at a time. This would require responding to phone calls from people who are homeless outside of office hours, and assessing if there are any short term options until the next working day for a full assessment, and if not is there a need to provide emergency accommodation and if so providing it.
  
  Whatever your role within Wyre Forest District Council, every day you will be working to benefit people living in the area. The District is a mix of urban rural, market and riverside town communities covering 195 square kilometres. The three main towns of Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport-on-Severn and several surrounding villages including Arley, Rock, Chaddesley Corbett and Wolverley make up the district. Over 100,000 people live here and you can help shape our district's future as part of our circa 350 strong workforce that strives to make a difference in making sure the services we offer meet the aspirations and needs of our local community., To find out more about Wyre Forest District Council, or the area we serve please visit our website at www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk, 'Like' us on Facebook www.facebook.com/WyreForest/ or follow us on Twitter @WyreForestDC.
  
  We value our employees and aim to create a positive, progressive and open work culture that supports everyone to thrive. We believe in rewarding employees and working for us has some great benefits. We focus on supporting your physical, financial and emotional wellbeing. You can expect to enjoy a range of learning and development opportunities designed to enhance you in your role. Our excellent benefits also include a competitive salary and pension scheme, favourable holiday entitlements and flexible working options.
We are dedicated to enabling each individual to be the best that they can be, and are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We are a Disability Confident Employer and hold the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Bronze award. If you have ambition for yourself and this district, thrive on challenges and getting results, share our values and strive to make others feel valued, then we want to hear from you., Our vision is underpinned by the following values which lie at the heart of everything we do:
• We are working together
• We are fair
• We are dependable
• We put communities first
Our Priorities: Our priorities represent what we want to achieve for the social, economic and environmental well-being of the district, they are:
• Economic growth and regeneration
• Securing financial sustainability for services the local communities value
• A clean, safe and green place to live, work and visit