What does a housing officer do?

As part of my role, what we look into and what we cover is rent arrears and rent management, improve people’s incomes if we can by trying to improve their financial situation with the assistance of welfare and benefits advice and money advisors that are based within Link. I also tackle any anti-social behaviour, neighbour complaints, and any issues within a block that we may have.

We do a lot of estate management, work with our asset planning officers to improve the environment that people live in. We also do tenancy visits, any kind of tenancy issues that come in, changes over in tenancies, any changes in circumstances, and generally ensure people are just happy in their homes.

What qualities do you need to be a housing officer?

You need to be a strong person, you need to be adaptable and adjust to situations, and also flexible. It is a varied job. Sometimes your day doesn’t go as you expected it to go and I think the ultimate thing I have learnt with being a housing officer is that you won’t always get to the end of your to-do list! Unfortunately, that to-do list is ever growing, but it is fine!

You prioritise. You stay calm. You deal with it as things come. And I do think you need to be a calm person to be a housing officer but also a positive and upbeat person because you do see situations that are difficult to take home and you need to be able close the door at the end of the day and pick that up the next day and not carry it forward into your personal life.