Location: office base in St Leonards. Salary: £28,640 per year, plus £1,000 essential car user allowance, plus £820 Rough Sleepers Allowance, plus Unsociable Hours shift allowance. Hours: 37 per week. Working pattern includes two early morning shifts, starting at 5:00 am (Summer) or 6:00 am (Winter) Monday–Friday. Other working days are 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Monday–Friday.
What you’ll be doing:
Are you passionate about ending the cycle of rough sleeping for people who are experiencing homelessness? Are you interested in a career in housing support, mental health recovery and wellbeing development? Southdown’s Outreach and Move On teams support those who are rough sleeping to move away from homelessness by accessing accommodation options.
As a Housing Support Specialist you’ll work alongside a multiagency team, supporting people who have experienced the trauma of homelessness, to make positive and lasting changes in their lives. You’ll provide early morning street outreach to people sleeping rough in Hastings, combined with move on / tenancy support as your clients take steps away from homelessness and into accommodation.
You’ll provide flexible, trauma‑informed support, focusing on ending rough sleeping by identifying the support each person needs. This may include support with substance dependency, mental and physical health needs, domestic abuse, current or historical offending.
We welcome applications from candidates with previous experience in roles such as Support Worker, Outreach Worker, Community Specialist, Case Manager, Social Worker, Housing Support Worker, Social Care Prescriber, Community Health Worker, Community Outreach Coordinator or Care Coordinator. However, this is not essential and we will provide a full induction and training programme for all successful candidates.
Skills, knowledge and experience
What you need for the role:
* Available to work unsociable hours (2 early morning shifts per week starting at 5 am or 6 am)
* A personalised care approach, with empathy and understanding
* An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which will be paid for by Southdown
* A full driving Licence is essential along with access to your own car or a car insured for you
What would be nice:
* Knowledge of complex and diverse support needs relating to homelessness, mental health and substance misuse
* Awareness of the causes of rough sleeping and the barriers preventing people who are rough sleeping from engaging in services
* Experience working in a supported housing or homelessness setting
* Experience supporting individuals with complex mental health needs
Training:
Our award winning in house training team will help you to gain valuable qualifications, continually develop your skills and build a great career with the largest provider of housing, care and support in Sussex.
Perks and benefits:
* Health cost cash‑back scheme: access to our health insurance scheme which covers dental, optical, physical therapies and other medical treatments with the option to add greater levels of cover.
* Interest‑free loans: assistance with larger costs that arise such as tenancy deposits, season travel tickets or buying a car.
* Access to the Easit Network: discounts and incentives on train, bus and car journeys such as 15% off eligible daily and season rail tickets.
* Blue Light card: access to discount services for the social care sector with savings across thousands of online shops, restaurants, and high‑street vendors.
* Free advice and counselling service: confidential emotional support and practical guidance from our independent telephone service.
* 25 days paid holiday plus bank holidays.
* Rough Sleepers Allowance – £820 per year.
* Essential car user allowance – £1,000 per year.
* Unsociable hours allowance – an extra £4.51 per shift.
We are a Disability Confident Employer and are fully committed to supporting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and welcome applications from all candidates that meet our job specifications. If you feel there is a barrier that potentially prevents you from applying, do get in contact with us, as we are always happy to discuss (or arrange a discussion with the recruiting manager) to explore any reasonable adjustments that can be made to support your application.
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