Housing Assistant - City Chambers in Edinburgh

The City of Edinburgh Council’s Homelessness Prevention and Housing Options Team is at the frontline for tackling and preventing homelessness in Edinburgh. An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time HP&HOT Housing Assistant to support Homeless Housing Officers with the prevention and statutory duty requirements to households who are homeless or threatened with homelessness in Edinburgh.

All posts will be based in any of the following locations at any given time:

• 249 High Street, Edinburgh
• North West Office – 8 West Pilton Gardens, Edinburgh
• North East Office – 101 Niddrie Mains Road, Edinburgh
• South East Office – 40 Captains Road, Edinburgh
• South West Office – 10 Westside Plaza, Edinburgh

Please note that at any point in your employment with the Council you may be required to work in any location across Edinburgh and therefore the above locations may change at short notice.

The HP&HOT Housing Assistant will work in a statutory service supporting Housing Officers to provide advice and support to customers to prevent and resolve homelessness by helping them remain in their home or where this is not possible secure a home. They will provide assistance with ongoing management of cases, ensuring that homeless applicants are accessing appropriate support, considering their full housing options and bidding appropriately to enable them to secure permanent accommodation.

The role will be administrative with ongoing customer contact, maintaining records and closing cases timeously. This will enable Housing Officers to focus on the provision of high quality and person-centred case work to assist households to resolve their homelessness.

The HP&HOT Housing Assistant will fulfil the Council’s duties by working to legislative and good practice requirements and in collaboration with many other statutory services and partner organisations.

Successful candidates require resilience and excellent organisational skills as they will be working within a busy service area with competing demands. They must be able to take ownership and responsibility for their tasks and have a proven track record of working within a challenging frontline service.

This post is subject to a basic disclosure check. Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more out with the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory.

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce where everyone feels valued and able to be their best. We particularly encourage applications from women for senior roles, as well as people from minority ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities or neurodivergent people, care experienced people, carers and LGBT+ people across all levels of the organisation, all of whom are currently underrepresented. All applicants will be considered fairly based on skills and experience. Disabled and care-experienced applicants who meet the minimum job criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

As part of our goal to improve organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure we're recruiting the best people. We’re interested not only in your skills and experience but also in your approach to work. Therefore, part of our interview process will be an assessment of how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working.

You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page.

Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range. Happy to talk flexible working.