Housing Rights Manager

Housing Rights Manager
Work Pattern: 35 hours a week, full time
Contract: 24 month contract subject to successful probation period, with possibility of extension subject to funding
Salary: £37,941 per annum (inclusive of London Weighting)
Location: Camden & Hackney Outreach

About CARIS Families

CARIS Families is a small, frontline charity that supports families who are homeless and living in overcrowded multi-occupant hostels in the London Boroughs of Hackney and Camden. Life in temporary accommodation hostels entrenches children and their parents in poverty and disadvantage. Families suffer from acute overcrowding, inadequate basic facilities and a permanent sense of unsafety. The nature of hostel life isolates people from their support networks, decimates their physical and mental health and becomes an adverse life experience in itself for families already suffering the trauma of having become homeless.

CARIS Families exists to provide early intervention to mitigate the worst effects of hostel life and homelessness for children and parents in our four target hostels. We do this by providing hands-on play, learning and social activities to help children meet their potential, improve families’ wellbeing and build their support network.  We provide a holistic family support service that case-works with each family individually to reduce financial and other pressures on them as they wait for a permanent home.  We also use our data and learned experiences about temporary accommodation to join campaigns for reform to temporary accommodation policy and practice, both locally and nationally.

We have just received funding to employ a dedicated Housing Rights Manager for the next two years. This is an exciting addition to our team, as it will be our first staff member dedicated to helping our homeless families with their housing case. The housing system is notoriously opaque: families tell us it can be a hopeless minefield to navigate independently and that they often can’t access meaningful help with it, resulting in years-long hostel stays. Our Housing Rights Manager will step into the gap and work with families on an individual basis to gain the information and support they need to progress their housing case and expedite their move-on into a suitable home.

About the role

Our Housing Rights Manager will be a key member of our Family Support Service. They will manage a weekly drop-in clinic from within the hostels where they will assess new housing cases and develop a support plan with families. They will manage a full housing caseload of housing support work, collaborating with relevant local groups, local authority partners and law centres to progress families’ housing cases. They will learn from the barriers families tell us they face, develop CARIS Families’ housing advice service in response and use these learnings to contribute to campaigns for reform to temporary accommodation practices and policies locally and nationally.

In their first year, the Housing Rights Manager will work in partnership with housing solicitors at Shelter to write a Housing Information and Rights handbook tailored to the processes of our target boroughs. The handbook will aim to demystify the temporary accommodation system in our two boroughs, explain residents’ legal rights and help them understand their options. It will form a key part of the support we can offer and allow us to reach many more families in hostels than our small staff team can individually casework with.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a committed staff team of just 5, working in a person-centred and community-minded way to make a real difference to families on the frontline of inner-London’s housing crisis.

The Benefits

• Salary of £37,941 (full-time, 35 hours a week.)
• Hybrid working can be negotiated around core frontline delivery hours
• 25 days’ annual leave, plus Christmas week closure and bank holidays (pro rata)
• 6% employer pension contribution
• Ongoing learning and development opportunities
• Being part of a dedicated, supportive and inclusive team

Please complete the accompanying application form and return by Friday 14th December 2024 at 6pm.

INTERESTED?

PLEASE PRESS THE 'HOW TO APPLY' BUTTON FOR MORE INFORMATION.

We particularly welcome and encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals, and those who have lived experience of the impact of homelessness and/or temporary accommodation policy and practice.

Please note that this post is subject to an enhanced vetting and barring check.

No agencies please.