Blog 20 January 2025
Early Intervention in Housing Issues
Matilda Brodie, Project Manager for the Advising Londoners project describes a new initiative to support a traineeship in housing advice.
London CA Website Blog: Housing
London Citizens Advice funding a traineeship for a Housing Caseworker in East London
After securing funding from the Greater London Authority in late 2024, London Citizens Advice is funding a traineeship for one FTE Housing Specialist Caseworker to intervene early in Londoners’ housing issues.
In October 2024, London Citizens Advice was granted an uplift in their allocation of funding for the London-wide Advising Londoners Partnership project. With this uplift, we chose to fund a traineeship to develop a Housing Specialist Caseworker in one of London’s local Citizens Advice (CA) offices.
From our conversations with managers, advisors, volunteers and Chief Executives at local CAs, we know that offices do not have staff capacity, funds for training or adequate staff supervision to address the number of housing issues they are seeing from their clients1. Exacerbated by a housing crisis and the severe lack of housing lawyers to refer to once issues escalate, Londoners are not knowing where to turn to resolve their housing issues.
This traineeship for a Housing Specialist Caseworker is a pilot project to develop an in-house advisor that can address housing issues before they reach litigation. Housing Caseworkers address issues such as homelessness, Section 21s, allocation and disrepair.
From October - December, the trainee completed twelve training courses covering topics of Affordability and Intentional Homelessness, Local Authority Homelessness Duties, Community Care and Housing, Housing Ombudsman: complaint procedure, Habitual Residence Test and Housing Rights for Ex Offenders. The funding has also covered the opportunity to shadow a housing caseworker in Havering and receive weekly legal supervision from a housing solicitor at University House. The Housing Trainee is continuing their training until the end of March 2025 when they will then be expected to take on unique clients from their borough.
This piloted program is funded for one year by the GLA. London Citizens Advice is hopeful that the success of this traineeship will demonstrate the importance of early-stage intervention on housing issues for Londoners and the necessity to provide such specialist casework in local Citizens Advice offices across London.