Scottish Housing Day 2023 is all about celebrating housing as a career.
One of the most well-known routes into the industry is through the role of Housing Officer. Each one responsible for managing a certain street or development, they have many day-to-day responsibilities that enable us to provide the service we do! They are also often the first point of contact for most of our tenants for any guidance and support, and are always here to help when needed.
Louise O’Connor, describes what she enjoys most about her role of Housing Officer:
What first attracted you to your current role?
Initially I worked in Customer Services with the City of Edinburgh Council and then I moved to a Rents Officer post with the council. I enjoyed that role and moving initially to a Housing Assistant role, and then a Housing Officer role, was a natural transition.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
One of the things I love most is allocating someone a property when you can clearly see how much it means to them, especially if they are moving on from being homeless. I really enjoying doing all I can to help people settle into their new flats and the local area. I also like taking on the challenges that can arise around rents arrears and anti-social behaviour, and finding ways to turn things around for the better.
It’s literally my job to help people every single day. It’s what you’re expected to do and what I enjoy doing.
What changes or trends have you noticed?
Within the last 10 years, all the cuts to public services (social work and mental health etc) have been very noticeable and it has meant that lots of things fall to us, so we need be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. This together with the cost of living crisis, means we’re seeing tenants face more varied and bigger challenges.
Do you ever come across any misconceptions about your role?
Probably the biggest misconception is that we can evict people when anti-social behaviour issues arise. Quite rightly, evictions are very rare, so our challenge is to work with tenants to support them to overcome issues.