What is the job role?
Let’s Rent Coventry’ is Coventry City Council’s rent guarantee scheme, launched in May. It aims to match households who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, with private landlords who have properties to let in the city. This provides homeless households with a safe, suitable home for at least 12 months and enables the Council to fulfil its duties under the homelessness legislation (Part 7 of the Housing Act ).
We are recruiting for an Accommodation Officer, you’ll join the team at an exciting time for the housing and homeless service, and in the post you’ll be responsible for increasing the capacity of the private rented sector. By building links with landlords in the private rented sector you will secure accommodation and help prevent homelessness.
You’ll be working alongside colleagues to increase the supply of PRS accommodation and match these to households in temporary accommodation to allow the service to discharge its homeless duties.
You’ll need the ability to be creative and solution-focused negotiating and connecting with people from all backgrounds.
The role can also include the placement of households into temporary accommodation, the ongoing case management of homeless households in temporary accommodation with tenancy management, rent collection and timely move-on into more permanent accommodation to discharge the Council’s rehousing duty.
This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Who are we looking for?
For the role you’ll need
1. To be highly motivated with a strong drive and ambition to achieve
2. A positive attitude towards helping people overcome Homelessness
3. Strong negotiating skills and advocacy skills.
4. Resilience and determination to achieve the right outcomes for Homeless people/families
5. Willingness to learn about the relevant legislation for Housing and Homelessness
6. The ability to travel around the City.
7. You will be able to use your initiative, be forward thinking and solutions-led due to this being a reactive role
If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our to see how we can assist you.
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:
8. Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
9. Are currently in care or have previously been in care
10. 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 on our jobs page 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.
Interview date(s): 1st Stage interview 9th July, if you are successful at this stage you will be invited back to the 2nd stage interview 12th July.
About Coventry
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 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.