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A week in the life of… a Broadacres housing officer
Another week of lockdown: Dean Vinter, a housing officer at Broadacres, explains how he has managed to hand over the keys to a new tenant, keep the spirits up of an older resident, and deal with a noise complaint remotely
Monday
I cover an area where we have around 700 homes, so normally on a Monday I’ll be on the estates, talking to residents about their issues and making general observations.
Due to lockdown, this is no longer possible but it is still important to me to keep in contact with our residents, so I spend a lot of time on the phone or responding to emails.
I received a complaint that one of our residents was playing their music too loudly. Normally I would visit the resident to remind them of their responsibilities, and nine times out of 10 this would be resolved.
On this occasion I mentioned it to the police, they then visited the resident and the loud music stopped – this is a good example of how we work with other agencies.
Tuesday
I live near one of Broadacres’ extra-care schemes, so at lunchtime I popped in for an hour to support staff working there.
Given that it is mainly older people living in the scheme, to protect them we have reduced access to the building, closed all communal areas and restaurant facilities, and asked residents to stay in their rooms wherever possible.
So at lunchtime, while wearing personal protective equipment, I helped deliver meals to the residents in their rooms, as well as ensuring they have everything they need, such as food shopping and prescriptions.
Wednesday
Due to the coronavirus pandemic we have suspended new property lettings, but we are still doing emergency allocations. Today I was required to undertake one in my area; this was to help an individual who had been made homeless.
We had a home ready, so while social distancing I met the resident at the property to hand it over and then left them with the keys.
Welcoming residents to one of our homes is one of the best parts of my job. Even though this particular handover had to be carried out a little differently, it was still nice to walk away knowing we had helped to take someone off the street.
Thursday
After helping with lunches at the extra-care scheme, I spent time, at a safe distance, with one of the oldest residents, a 93-year-old man.
He loves to talk, and I was fascinated to hear his take on the current situation and how this compared with another difficult time in the nation’s history: World War II. He was a child during the war and has the attitude that once you have experienced something like that, then anything else is a piece of cake.
I found the chat very inspirational and went away feeling a lot better about things in general.
Friday
Friday is my day off. I have been doing a history degree and I am about to complete it. Prior to lockdown, I attended lectures at university on Fridays but since the pandemic, these are now being carried out online. I recently completed my dissertation and my last essay – so I have put my free lockdown time to good use.
My week did not end there though, because on Sundays I have been going to the extra-care scheme to help out at lunchtime.
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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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