Housing & Homlessness Volunteer

Housing and Homelessness Volunteer

Do you have a background in housing options or homelessness? Can you spare some time on Tuesday and/or Friday afternoons? 

Living Well Bromley is a charity working with people from Bromley and surrounding areas. Our foodbank is well known in the area, but we also have other services including an advocacy team. Alongside debt, welfare benefits, health & wellbeing and hardship, we deal with housing cases, homelessness and homeless prevention, often working with local authorities and other partners. We are based in Penge, South London. 

Many of our ‘guests’ (clients) are vulnerable, often with mental or physical health difficulties. We are willing to go the extra mile to help people with complex cases in order to find solutions for them that can sometimes change their lives for the better. Our caseload is growing to the extent we have recently moved our advocacy team of volunteers to a larger premises, but at times we are still stretching our capacity to meet demand. 

We need someone who is primarily able to assess the needs of those who are, or who about to become homeless. You will have experience in this sort of case and can quickly start to handle your own caseload and to find solutions to guests’ housing needs. We expect to see an increase in rough sleepers coming for help over the coming winter months. 

We need someone with: 

- A good working knowledge of helping to resolve homelessness 

- A welcoming and non-judgemental approach 

- Availability on Tuesday and/or Friday afternoons 

- The ability to liaise with a variety of partners to find suitable solutions 

- The ability to keep good case records 

If you also have experience with other areas of housing such as tenancy matters, disrepair, housing suitability, private sector lettings, leasehold issues, ASB and neighbour disputes or rents and arrears, that would we wonderful. 

We are particularly appealing to those who have worked in local authorities or RSLs, though we know there are others who will have this knowledge and experience. 

We recognise that there are likely to be areas of the role that are less strong for you. We can provide training and support, but what we do need is that you are often a fast learner. 

We are looking for availability on Tuesdays or Fridays as that is when our foodbank is open: 3pm to 4pm on Tuesdays and 1pm to 3pm on Fridays. Often new cases come in before or after these times. 

If you are interested, please email us with a brief summary of your experience and we will get in touch. If you know anyone else who would suit this role, please pass this on. 

You can download the role description on this page for more information.

Many thanks 

Living Well Bromley 

advice@livingwell.life