Are you passionate about helping people and making a real difference in your community?
We are looking for a motivated and compassionate Homelessness Prevention Officer to join our busy and supportive team. This is an exciting opportunity to work directly with residents who are at risk of homelessness and help them find sustainable housing solutions at an early stage.
Every day is different in this role. You will work with people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, providing practical housing advice, negotiating with landlords and support services, and helping households remain safely housed wherever possible.
This role is ideal for someone who enjoys problem solving, working collaboratively, and supporting people through challenging situations.
For an informal discussion about the role, please contact: Mumtaz Ahmad, Tel: 07949 443648 or email:
[email protected]
About the role
As a Homelessness Prevention Officer, you will:
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Work with households threatened with homelessness to identify practical prevention options
- Carry out homelessness assessments and create personalised housing plans
- Negotiate with landlords, family members, support agencies and other professionals
- Provide clear housing advice and explain legal rights and responsibilities in an accessible way
- Help residents access private rented accommodation and other housing options
- Work closely with internal teams and external partners to achieve positive outcomes
- Maintain accurate case records and manage a varied caseload
This is a fast-paced role where empathy, resilience and strong communication skills are essential.
About you
We are looking for someone who:
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Has experience working with vulnerable people or customers in a housing, support, advice or related environment
- Can communicate confidently and sensitively with people from diverse backgrounds
- Is able to manage a busy workload and make balanced decisions under pressure
- Has strong problem-solving and negotiation skills
- Can work collaboratively as part of a team while also managing their own caseload
- Is committed to providing inclusive, person-centred services
You do not need to have worked in homelessness services before to apply if you can demonstrate transferable skills and a willingness to learn.
Why join us?
We offer:
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A supportive and experienced team environment
- Ongoing learning and development opportunities
- Flexible and hybrid working arrangements where possible
- A role where your work has a direct positive impact on local residents
- A strong commitment to staff wellbeing, inclusion and equality
We are committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly those currently underrepresented within our workforce.
We are committed to creating an inclusive recruitment process. If you require any adjustments during the application or interview process, please let us know.
Applying for the role
When completing your application, please ensure you demonstrate how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification.
We encourage applications from people with transferable skills and varied professional or lived experiences.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37
Please note that this post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Criminal Records Check.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
