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A week in the life of… an enforcement officer

Joanne Freeman, neighbourhood enforcement officer at Gentoo, explains how her work has changed during the coronavirus pandemic

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Joanne pictured before the pandemic – she has been working with the police to tackle coronavirus tenancy breaches
Joanne pictured before the pandemic – she has been working with the police to tackle coronavirus tenancy breaches
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“This week we identified 17 additional coronavirus tenancy breaches.” A week in the life of enforcement officer Joanne Freeman from @gentoogroup

“A minority of tenants are continuing to have house parties, frequent visitors, and causing other noise disturbances,” says Joanne Freeman, an enforcement officer with @gentoogroup

Monday

I began my week with a telephone briefing with Northumbria Police. We discussed issues that had arisen over the weekend, which at the moment mainly consist of tenants not adhering to social distancing guidelines. So far we’ve identified 56 tenancy breaches.

A minority of tenants are continuing to have house parties, frequent visitors, and causing other noise disturbances. We’re working with the police to tackle this, so our briefings now usually consist of identifying perpetrators who live in our properties so that we can take action. We also seek to identify any vulnerable people in the household to ensure our solution includes support interventions.

Tuesday

Lockdown has put the spotlight on people’s mental, physical and financial health, which means we have been preparing to deal with supporting more vulnerable tenants.

Today I was informed that a tenant was planning to self-harm – I reacted quickly and the police were called to the address. As this was a critical situation, I visited the address while adhering to social distancing measures to ensure the customer had the right support.


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Wednesday

I spent most of the day speaking to perpetrators over the phone or sending letters to their homes. Normally I would visit them, but thankfully technology enables me to still be proactive in my role and communicate with our tenants.

I also had an increase in the number of calls about fly-tipping across the city. So I forwarded a report of fly-tipping on one of our estates to the grounds maintenance team. Where we can, we support Sunderland Council in clearing the waste and identifying the offender.

Thursday

I had a briefing with the police to discuss the recent issues that have taken place in our neighbourhoods.

Sadly we’ve seen an increase in domestic violence and anti-social behaviour, so I’ve been speaking to our victim support team and our neighbourhood co-ordinators to work together to tackle this. We’ve been successful in supporting tenants through this previously and have a great system in place to help us provide the best support we can.

 

Friday

This week we identified 17 additional coronavirus tenancy breaches. Working with the police and Gentoo’s legal department, we sent out another 13 pre-notice letters to homes where serious breaches had taken place.

I ended the week supporting the police with a possible partial closure order, where the address in question is causing disorder and nuisance to neighbours. It’s been incredibly busy, but by working with our legal team and the police, we have responded quickly and reduced the risk of significant harm to the community – which is extremely rewarding.

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A week in the life series

A week in the life series

Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.

Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week. 

We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.

Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague for inclusion

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