A Day in the Life...Housing Patch Manager
A day in the life of Lisa, Housing Patch Manager
“Every day is so varied – on estate inspection days, I head over to Clifton, and because I’m working from home at the moment and not on the patch, I tend to go with a bit of a to-do list! I moved from working in St Anns to working in Clifton at the start of lockdown, so I’ve had to get to know the new area while we’ve been locked down, which has been interesting.
“In terms of the to-do list - there might be a complaint about an overgrown hedge, for example, so it’s checking it out to see if it’s our responsibility or the council’s. Or, a tenant might want a lock changing on their gate, or I might need to check out a property that’s been reported as abandoned, or an overgrown garden – there are a whole range of things that might need addressing. We try and plan our days, but we just don’t know what will come in.
“People like to think that we can sort their issues out straightaway without delay, but one of the more challenging parts of the job is prioritising what needs to be done, on the basis of risk – for example, supporting someone to flee domestic violence has to take priority over an overgrown garden.
“The top five things we cover as Housing Patch Managers would probably be:
- Supporting tenants to keep to terms of their tenancy agreement – this might include keeping gardens tidy or resolving anti-social behaviour issues, for example. It also includes tenancy sustainment – helping people access support if they’re struggling to pay their rent.
- Helping tenants who need extra support – we do this usually by working in partnership with agencies such as adult social care or mental health teams.
We also aim to build relationships with tenants – particularly those who need greater levels of understanding and a more sympathetic approach, such as hoarders.
- Estate inspections – working with colleagues to keep areas clean, tidy and pleasant for people who live there, and reporting fly tipping, dog mess and parking issues.
- Dealing with anti-social behaviour – it’s a really big part of the job, unfortunately. Assessing complaints, putting measures in place to address the issues raised, and taking legal action when required. Supporting tenants throughout a case. Noise is a big issue, and has been even more of a problem during lockdown as people’s tolerance levels have dipped.
- Tenancy visits – we carry out both new tenancy visits when people have just moved in, and regular tenancy visits. At the moment, we do them over the phone, but in normal circumstances, these visits are about building up relationship face to face, discussing things like fuel poverty, debt, safeguarding and so on. It’s difficult over phone; I can’t wait to get back to doing it in person.
“The best bit of the job for me is addressing ASB and hoarding issues, and resolving them in a way that makes a positive difference to people’s lives. And the worst bit is estate inspections. In Clifton, the streets are really long!”
