Housing Support Worker

Kineara has a new vacancy for an experienced Housing Support Worker to join our small and dedicated team in this new project supporting recent granted refugees to find accommodation.

About the project

Set up by Southwark Council, the Homes for Ukraine project supports families and individuals from Ukraine who have been granted visas to live and work in the UK. After an initial period living with host families or in temporary accommodation, the project helps households take the next step towards independence by supporting them to move into private rented accommodation, assisting them in finding employment, and linking them with wider community support networks, while working holistically to ensure their individual needs are met. This approach aims to help Ukrainian households settle and thrive in the UK.

This project will be delivered alongside our Refugee PRS Renters Support Programme in Southwark. We will provide crucial crisis support to vulnerable renters and are looking for a passionate housing support worker to be part of the next phase of the project. You can find out more about the work here.

About the role

We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic, and energetic support worker to take up a full-time role within our organisation as a Housing Support Practitioner in our small and dedicated team. The role will be based mostly in Southwark, and you will be working in partnership with the Council’s housing officers and resettlement workers, refugee support organisations, community services.

The role involves:

• Coordinate tailored support for each client to find and sustain tenancies and mediating with landlords where necessary.
• Providing housing advice and help find employment. 
• Support access to PRS properties.
• Provide information about housing market and polices.
• Help set up sustainable tenancies.
• Support to increase employment and training opportunities.

About you

• You will have experience of working with individuals with complex needs and comple needs assessments.
• You will be an enthusiastic person who is self-motivated, confident and thrives when working independently with a passion to support change.
• You will have excellent interpersonal skills, experience delivering holistic support, be a solution-minded thinker, have a good understanding of strength-based approaches and be able work sensitively and empathetically with people in vulnerable circumstances.
• You have good knowledge of housing and homelessness policies in England.
• You will also have experience working in a systemic and therapeutic way and ideally have trauma informed training or experience.
• You have experience with keeping records and contributing data for reports and monitoring purposes.
• It is also important to us that you have the competency to work with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
• Be able to  work as part of a team and independently, the roles require you to think creatively and use the resources around you effectively.

About Kineara

Kineara is a unique community interest company that supports people in poverty across London who facing barriers to housing, employment and education. We identify and address barriers by providing holistic support for families, vulnerable adults, and school pupils, and deliver intensive one-to-one interventions to those in need of extra help through challenging times. We use holistic, trauma-informed methods, partnership working and a flexible, non-judgemental approach that puts the needs of those we work with first.

HOW TO APPLY: Please send a CV and a cover letter explaining how you meet the criteria for the role. Please also include:

Why you wish to apply for this role

What you would like to gain from this role

Your relevant experience, knowledge and skills, based on the person specification above.