Housing Triage and Support Officer

Are you passionate about helping people access the right housing advice and support at a time when they need it most? We are looking for an experienced Housing Triage and Support Officer to join our Housing Options and Solutions Team. You will play an important role in helping to prevent and reduce homelessness across the Sevenoaks District by providing an effective first point of contact for customers and ensuring they receive timely, appropriate advice and support.
About the role
As a Housing Triage and Support Officer, you will undertake rapid initial assessments of customers' housing needs, circumstances and support requirements. Using your knowledge and experience of housing, you will identify the most appropriate service or intervention and ensure customers are directed to the right support at the earliest opportunity.
You will be a key first point of contact for customers seeking housing advice and assistance. The role will involve taking part in telephone triage and advice duties, as well as face-to-face walk-in duties, providing an accessible and responsive service to customers who may be homeless, threatened with homelessness or experiencing housing difficulties.
Through telephone and face-to-face contact, you will gather relevant information, assess customers' circumstances and provide clear, comprehensive housing advice and guidance. You will identify housing options, explain available services and interventions, and ensure customers are referred or signposted to the appropriate service where further specialist support is required.
You will help identify opportunities for early homelessness prevention, including appropriate referrals to partner agencies, mediation and other interventions designed to prevent homelessness wherever possible.
Working closely with colleagues across the Housing Options and Solutions Team and other Council services, you will help ensure that customers receive a coordinated and customer-focused response. You will also work with external partners and agencies where appropriate to ensure customers receive the support they need.
The role will involve supporting the day-to-day operation of the service, including coordinating and undertaking customer enquiries, maintaining accurate case records, completing administrative tasks and assisting colleagues with a range of service activities.
You will be expected to participate in the team's telephone and face-to-face duty rota, responding to customers promptly and professionally and ensuring that urgent housing and homelessness enquiries are identified and acted upon appropriately.
The role will involve working with customers who may be vulnerable or experiencing complex and challenging circumstances. You will therefore need to demonstrate resilience, empathy and professionalism, while remaining focused on achieving positive outcomes for customers and meeting service deadlines.

We are looking for someone with experience of providing housing advice, guidance or support to customers, ideally within a local authority or housing environment. You will have a good understanding of housing and homelessness issues and the ability to assess customers' circumstances, identify their needs and provide appropriate advice and assistance.
You will be customer focused, empathetic and non-judgemental, with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You will be confident providing advice both over the telephone and face-to-face, including to customers who may be distressed, vulnerable or experiencing complex circumstances.
You will be comfortable working within a busy duty environment where priorities can change quickly. You will need to remain calm and professional when dealing with challenging situations and be able to make appropriate decisions based on the information available.
You will be organised and resilient, with the ability to manage competing priorities, work to deadlines and respond effectively in a busy customer-facing environment. You will also be comfortable working collaboratively with colleagues, partner agencies and other services to achieve positive outcomes for customers.
Your ability to listen, assess and identify appropriate interventions will be essential, as will your capacity to use initiative and make sound decisions while working within relevant legislation, policies and procedures.
You should be confident using Microsoft Office and relevant housing or case management systems and be able to maintain accurate and comprehensive records.