As of June 2023 there were a total of 2,200 households (singles and families) living in temporary accommodation through Barnet Homes, with some placed in hotels. 238 hotel bookings were made in the first quarter of the year, which is a 71% increase from the previous year.
Hey! I’m Sapphire from the Accommodation Solutions Team at Barnet Homes. I’ve recently been promoted to the role of a Senior Officer. We often say no day is the same over here!
From phone duty to paperwork, our hands are always full. The Accommodation Solutions team primarily allocates accommodation to people in emergencies who present to us as homeless. We also reassess clients and complete offers for long term temporary or settled accommodation.
I’ve been tasked with supporting the families we have in shared/hotel accommodations. supporting It’s been a challenging task given the shortage of properties and the specific needs most of the families have.
It’s always rewarding being able to move families on from hotels as I can understand the hardships and frustration. It’s difficult to summarise what a day in the life is like as sometimes I feel like an octopus! However, there is always something to do and problems to solve.
Here’s a mini diary of my day:
09:00 – 09:45: Check through daily vacancies to see if any alternative accommodations have been advertised. Reserve any local two, three or four bedroom properties with the agents.
10:00 – 11:00: Match up available properties to families and prioritise bookings who have been in hotels longer. Prepare the paperwork for the properties, this includes the sign up information pack, licence agreement and housing benefit details. Send to the sign up officer to complete the sign up and inform family how keys can be collected.
11:00 – 12:00: Extend any bookings that are due to end where the family did not match up to properties – contact the families to explain that booking will be extended.
13:00 – 14:00: Check through daily vacancies again to double check nothing new has come through
14:00 – 17:30: Go through transfer cases to see if any other cases who are currently in temporary accommodation match with properties. Conduct reassessments if needed and proceed with offers.