Sanctuary manages rented and shared ownership homes and supports community initiatives for thousands of customers across England. Our staff help make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives.
Housing Officer - Independent Living
Based in Kent with regular travel around the South East
£34,531 per year (pro rata)
Temporary position for up to 6 months
37.5 hours per week – Monday to Friday 08:30am – 5:00pm
We are seeking a Housing Officer to join our Independent Living team that is part of the East and Southeast Region on a 6 month temporary basis. You will be working in a team of 5 Housing officers and managing a team of Scheme Managers.
This is a varied opportunity that will see you managing a range of situations and helping to build key relationships between Sanctuary Housing and our tenants. You will have excellent negotiating skills and a flexible approach to working, as you will be required to attend some evening meetings. You will also be expected to work in a professional manner to resolve problems and improve services.
The role of Housing Officer will include:
* Managing a Team of Scheme Managers who oversee the day to day running of Schemes across a geographical area.
* Meet all legislative and regulatory requirements for housing management activities, ensuring the provision of quality and safe homes for Sanctuary Housing Services' current and future customers and to minimise potential risks.
* Effective management of anti-social behaviour cases
* Liaising with colleagues in Property Services and Lettings to ensure the effective allocation of void properties
* Managing tenant expectations regarding repairs and escalating any property maintenance issues affecting tenant welfare via appropriate channels
* Managing complaints about service delivery
* Working with colleagues in other service areas to help the organisation meet its compliance obligations (fire safety, water hygiene, gas safety and data protection)
* Delivering general advice on all aspects of tenancy to enable sustainability
* Working with a range of external agencies to resolve a range of issues affecting tenant welfare including domestic abuse, anti-social behaviour, and safeguarding
* Working closely with administrative colleagues to complete a range of tenancy management processes, which include tenancy conversions, permissions, mutual exchanges, successions, service charges and enforcement of tenancy breaches
Skills and experiences:
* Proven experience of undertaking a similar role
* Prior experience of delivering high quality tenancy services and line management
* Excellent skills in analysing and diagnosing problems and implementing solutions
* Excellent communication, Organisation and customer care skills
* Proven experience of good practice resident involvement activities
* Excellent understanding of written and spoken English
* Working knowledge of relevant regulations and good practice
* Travel is a requirement of the role, therefore a full valid driving licence is essential
Why work for us?
We are a not-for-profit housing association, and own and manage around 125,000 homes. We foster a diverse and inclusive culture, and nurture and reward talent. Our customers are at the heart of all we do, and colleagues help make a real difference to people’s lives.
Our Benefits
As part of our commitment to making Sanctuary a great place to work, where your wellbeing is of genuine importance, we have developed an attractive employment package. The package recognises your contribution, supports your physical, mental and financial health and gives you the flexibility to tailor your employee benefits by offering:
* 25 days annual leave (rising to a maximum of 30 days) plus public holidays (pro rata)
* A pension scheme with employer contributions from Sanctuary
* Life Assurance
* Employee Advice Service including counselling
* Cycle to Work scheme
* Voluntary health plans
* Employee discounts
* Wellbeing support and tools
* Employee recognition scheme
* Employee Networks, with a shared interest in inclusion, and who provide invaluable support to colleagues
* Role salary is £34,531 (pro rata)
View the job profile (if the link is unavailable please visit the Sanctuary careers website)
Closing Date: 25 January 2026
If you're unsure about any details, have questions about the role or want to discuss a need for adjustments, our fantastic talent team will be happy to help you – housing.recruitment@sanctuary.co.uk
We reserve the right depending on application numbers to close or extend the closing dates for positions; we would therefore recommend an early application.
View more detail about what it’s like to work for our organisation, and what we offer on our Sanctuary careers pages at - www.sanctuary.co.uk/join-our-team
Inclusion is one of our core values. Our goal is to be a diverse, inclusive organisation where our people thrive and meet our customers’ needs with fairness and empathy. We know having a range of ideas and opinions makes a difference. We encourage and welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support this mission. We will make adjustments throughout your application process, in line with Sanctuary’s commitment to our Disability Confident employer status.
Building Equality and Diversity
Sanctuary Group encourages and welcomes applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support our commitment to offering an inclusive environment for our employees and customers.
We work closely with the Home Office in order to prevent illegal working.
A basic Disclosure and Barring Service check will be necessary in the event of a successful application which we will pay for.
Sanctuary Housing Services Limited is a subsidiary of Sanctuary Housing Association, an exempt charity.