Hostel support worker jobs

As a Project Worker at our Stacey Street service in Islington, you will play a crucial role in transforming the lives of adults who have experienced homelessness or rough sleeping. By providing compassionate, high-quality support, you’ll help individuals facing multiple challenges, such as mental health issues, substance use, trauma, and offending behaviour. You’ll assist them in navigating their path to recovery and stability by connecting them with vital services, empowering them to overcome barriers and improve their overall wellbeing.

But the impact you’ll have doesn’t stop there. You will foster hope and resilience by guiding clients toward opportunities for personal growth, training, and employment. You’ll help them build meaningful relationships, engage with their community, and gain the confidence to lead independent, fulfilling lives. In a dynamic hostel setting, you’ll collaborate with a wide network of specialists, offering a tailored, holistic approach that guides clients toward independence and community engagement. Your work will be instrumental in creating lasting change, inspiring clients to believe in their potential, and helping them break free from the cycle of disadvantage. At Single Homeless Project, this is not just a job, it's an opportunity to make a real difference and build a meaningful career.

About you:

• A non-judgemental approach to working with multi-disadvantaged clients and to promote a strengths-based approach.
• Strong team-working and interpersonal skills, maintaining a collaborative approach to delivering service objectives across work specialisms.
• Experience helping people to identify personal goals and supporting them through a process of change, including managing challenging situations in relation to people, including responding calmly to crisis and deal promptly, effectively and safely to complex situations.
• Strong time management skills, ability to work on own initiative, manage competing priorities and maintain high standards.
• Willingness and ability to work on a rota system of early and late shifts, which may include some variable hours including some evenings and weekends.

About us:

Single Homeless Project is a London-wide charity. Our vision is of a society where everyone has a place to call home and the chance to live a fulfilling life.

We help single Londoners by preventing homelessness, providing support and accommodation, promoting wellbeing, enhancing opportunity, and being a voice for change. From supporting people in crisis to helping people take the final steps towards independence and employment, we make a difference to 12,000 lives every year across all 32 boroughs.

We offer you more than a job; we offer you a chance to be part of a compassionate, driven team that's committed to making a real difference in people's lives. You'll have the opportunity to lead, co-create, and inspire change while enjoying a collaborative, growth-oriented environment.

Join us in creating a brighter, more hopeful future for individuals in need. 

Important info:

Closing Date: Monday 3rd November 2025 at Midnight

Interview date:  Wednesday 12th November at our Stacey Street service in Islington

This post will require an Enhanced DBS check to be processed (by SHP) for the successful applicant. 

Please note applications are reviewed for AI use in application questions. Applications with insufficient right to work or requiring sponsorship will not be accepted for this role. 

Crisis is the national charity for people experiencing homelessness. In 2024 we embarked on our new 10-year strategy for ending homelessness. We know it is not inevitable. We know together we can end it.

Contract: Must be available for 2 days during w/c 15th Dec for induction and site visit before the hotel opens on 23 Dec. 

Pay: £20 per hour (£30 per hour on Bank Holidays)

Shifts: 07:45 – 20:15 (day) and 19:45 – 08:15 (night) on site at the hotel and you will be entitled to 2 x 30 minute unpaid breaks during your shifts.

Locations: Crisis Warehouse in Canning Town and hotel in East London with exact location provided upon successful appointment

The role

This is a unique opportunity to join the Crisis at Christmas team as a Women’s Pathway coordinator at a hotel and way of working we are introducing for the first time in East London. The Women-led Pathway is specifically designed for women experiencing homelessness and is a women-led initiative grounded in a psychologically informed approach. Your aim will be to ensure guests have a positive experience, that we achieve the impact we want and that there is consistency throughout the duration of the project. Crisis at Christmas is innovative and achieves great things, we want you to be part of that.

The purpose of the role is to be the key on-site point of contact for volunteers, case managers, hotel staff and members of our security team. You will play a key role in ensuring Crisis at Christmas policies and procedures around volunteering, incident management, safeguarding and guest wellbeing and behaviour are being followed. You will ensure volunteers are supported with any issues, difficult conversations and incidents that may arise with our hotel guests.

You will be responsible for escalating any serious concerns or issues to the Guest services manager, Head of Christmas and on-call managers during the Christmas period who will all be able to provide advice and guidance for any issues you may encounter on site.

To be considered for the role you must be able to be on site at the hotel in London during the Christmas period. This will include working on Bank Holidays and weekends.  

To ensure that the needs of the women we support are met in a safe and supportive environment, this post is open to applications from women only. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and welcome applications from women of all backgrounds, including trans women.   

Experience required 

• Previous experience managing or working intensively in services for women, ideally in a hostel or accommodation environment in the homelessness or related sector.
• Experience working with and supporting women with multiple and complex needs.
• A good understanding of the issues faced by women experiencing homelessness.
• Ability and confidence to consult and use own initiatives to manage risk and make appropriate decisions in complex situations.
• Experience of holding high quality briefings and debriefs with multiple different audiences.
• Ability to build and manage effective working relationships with multiple different stakeholders from a range of backgrounds.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively and confidently with a wide range of audiences.

Shifts

You will also accrue annual leave during this work, which will be calculated according to statutory guidelines and will be paid in your final payslip. Holiday entitlement will be calculated as 12.07% of actual hours worked and equates to approximately £3.80 per hour for bank holidays worked and £2.40 per hour for non-bank holiday work.

Applications close on Sunday 2 Nov at midnight

• About The Role

• Do you want to be part of empowering individuals to find their own solution to their housing crisis? This may be the job for you!

  You will provide a comprehensive homelessness service to customers with a range of housing related issues on behalf of Publica and involved with assisting in the day to day running of Publica’s Homeless Hostel’s.
  Creating individual housing plans for every applicant which fully reflects their needs and circumstances, whilst managing and resolving caseloads for those currently experiencing a housing crisis. Sourcing appropriate short term and long term accommodation to assist the council in discharging its duties, whilst maintaining accurate records both written and electronically and ensuring they are captured and recorded accurately.

  
  You will be required to represent the section/department at meetings/working parties/case conferences as appropriate and maintain a thorough knowledge of Housing and related legislation, including the Housing Acts, case law, the Homelessness Reduction code of guidance and good practice in the implementation thereof.

  
  What we are looking for…

   
  The successful candidate will be analytical and confident in interpreting housing legislation, with strong decision making skills essential for delivering effective homelessness prevention and relief services. 

  
  You will be someone who values structure, confidentiality, and professionalism as much as they do empathy and support. You will be expected to handle sensitive personal information with the utmost discretion, in line with GDPR and safeguarding protocols. Maintaining client confidentiality is non-negotiable in this role. 

  
  This role requires a strong understanding of professional boundaries and the ability to maintain them — even in emotionally complex situations. This is a rewarding but demanding role — ideal for someone who thrives on helping others in crisis, but who understands the importance of clear boundaries, resilience, and confidentiality. 

  
  You will need resilience and adaptability as you will often work with people experiencing stress, crisis, or confrontation, so it is essential you can manage these situations calmly and confidently. Being emotionally resilient and understand how to support others without becoming personally involved or emotionally entangled.

  
  Teamwork is essential for this role to work effectively with colleagues and external agencies.

  
  Please note you will need to be in the Witney offices 2 – 3 days a week and have the ability to travel within West Oxfordshire as required.
  
  You will need…

  • GCSEs (5 A-Cs or equivalent, including Maths and English) Please confirm what qualifications as not clear on JD
  • Experience of working with vulnerable people
  • Experience of working with people with complex needs
  • Communicates effectively at all levels (excellent verbal and written skills)

  For more information about this role please see the Job Description/Person Specification.

  Special Conditions…

  • Full UK Driving Licence with access to a vehicle for work purposes
  • DBS Check
  • Expected to work reasonable additional hours in line with the needs of the service

  What can we do for you… 

  • Agile working allowing a mix of home and office working
  • Flexible working arrangements (depending on the role)
  • 27 days paid annual leave (pro rata if you are working part time) plus bank holidays and an extra two volunteering days off a year for you to support a charity of your choice
  • Renewed again for another year there is a Health cash plan giving you cash back on health, dental and eye care
  • Pension scheme with a good employer contribution of 5% of your earnings
  • Employee Assistance Programme 24/7, providing positive, preventative and supportive advice and counselling to deal with everyday events and issues
  • Cycle to work scheme
  • Salary sacrifice car lease scheme with significant tax and NI savings to be made on electric cars
  • Generous sickness cover above statutory entitlements
  • Additional income protection, covering 50% of your salary for potentially a further five years if you are unable to work due to sickness or injury
  • Life assurance, currently four times your annual salary

  These are just a handful of the benefits that you can enjoy when you join us!

  
  To apply for this position please click on "apply now" within this page and submit your CV and supporting statement. Please tell us about your skills, knowledge, qualifications, experience and how they meet the criteria listed above and in the job description/person specification. It’s important that we’re a good fit for each other, so let us know what’s important to you and why you want to work for Publica Group Ltd.

  
  Accredited of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy/ies - Please state this within your covering statement or in a separate email. 

  
  Safer recruitment practices are applied to all job vacancies. Successful candidates will be required to complete a pre-employment medical questionnaire; provide references;  proof of identity; nationality and immigration status; three years’ employment or education history (if applicable) and, in some cases, verification of criminal record.

• About Us

• You will be employed by Publica Group Ltd which was created by four partner Councils (West Oxfordshire District Council, Cotswold District Council, Cheltenham Borough Council and Forest of Dean District Council) to deliver more efficient and improved services. 

  
  Publica is a unique place to work, established to transform the way local services are delivered, fundamentally rethinking the way our services are designed and delivered in a digital era, making us a customer-focused organisation driven by real user needs.