Temporay accommodation officer

Funded through Surrey’s ‘Supporting People’ all our temporary accommodation residents are offered the support of a temporary accommodation officer.  Our temporary accommodation officers are there to support residents of with their housing needs.

Many of our residents who move into temporary accommodation are taking on a tenancy for the first time or they are moving from an unsettled way of life.   The support the officer gives starts from the moment a new resident signs up.  Our temporary accommodation officer will help the resident to settle in by helping them to register with utilities, ensuring that they are claiming the correct benefits and have everything they need, which can often be furniture and bedding. 

Once a resident has moved in our temporary accommodation officers make contact with them at least once every 5 days.  Throughout a resident's stay our officers will continue to help them to maintain their tenancy, as well as prepare and make them ready to move on to their permanent accommodation.

Tenants have his or her own individual support plan, to assess their individual needs.  The support plan is reviewed every 6 months, so both the resident and officer knows what outcome they are aiming towards.

Our officers go above and beyond to support our temporary accommodation residents day to day, this can be with basics such as form filling and helping with benefits, but they also try their best to assist in contacting and sign posting to other agencies if they feel there is a resident who needs extra support.   

As a resident’s time in temporary accommodation ends, the temporary accommodation officer will support the resident with the moving on process, to ensure they settle into their permanent home.

Our officers are also responsible for doing weekly fire health and safety checks and fire tests on site.

The expected time to stay in temporary accommodation is between six months and two years. However, there is no set time scale, as it depends on each individual or family's needs and wishes for permanent accommodation.

We have a temporary accommodation manager based at Raven Housing in Redhill who oversees everything related to TA. Our temporary accommodation team comprises two temporary accommodation officers based in Reigate and Banstead, one in Tandridge and two temporary accommodation wardens in Crawley.

Officers work Monday to Thursday 8:45 am and 5:00 pm. Friday 8:45 am and 4:45 pm.  They have core times each day where they are on site to meet with our residents.

Out of hours patrol   

We operate an out of hours patrol one night a week, on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening between the hours of 9:00 pm and 12:00 am.  Two temporary accommodation officers patrol our temporary accommodation schemes in the Reigate and Banstead borough.

The officers look out for any anti-social behaviour and check the buildings are safe and secure.