Scottish Housing Day 2023: Celebrating a career in housing

In the lead-up to Scottish Housing Day on Wednesday, September 13, Link is sharing stories from our employees about why they have chosen a career in housing.

Lyndsey Murphy: It was like a lottery win

Link Group’s Community Investment Officer Lyndsey Murphy shares how growing up in social housing improved her and her parents’ lives.

From growing up in social housing to working for a social landlord

I was brought up in social housing, so I know how important it is that people have the opportunities to stay in a nice community and just a home. It is all very well having a street but when you have a sense of community and people have a sense of pride in where they stay it makes all the difference.

My mum and dad originally came from the north of Glasgow. They had an opportunity to relocate to Cumbernauld, which was one of the new towns. They were allocated with a three-bedroom family home with a back and front garden and like that the opportunity to move from where they lived, which was a high-rise tenement building, really difficult to heat. There was, obviously, in terms of the location and also opportunities for my mum and dad to work. Getting allocated to a new town will increase that in terms of what you have got outside your door – nice outdoor spaces, public transport, local schools, community centres. My mum and dad actually describe it as a lottery win.

presentation

Lyndsey Murphy

Jayne Butler: What qualities do you need to be a housing officer?

As part of my role, what we look into and what we cover is rent arrears and rent management, improve people’s incomes if we can by trying to improve their financial situation with the assistance of welfare and benefits advice and money advisors that are based within Link. I also tackle any anti-social behaviour, neighbour complaints, and any issues within a block that we may have. We do a lot of estate management, work with our asset planning officers to improve the environment that people live in. We also do tenancy visits, any kind of tenancy issues that come in, changes over in tenancies, any changes in circumstances, and generally ensure people are just happy in their homes.

What qualities do you need to be a Housing Officer?

You need to be a strong person, you need to be adaptable and adjust to situations, and also flexible. It is a varied job. Sometimes your day doesn’t go as you expected it to go and I think the ultimate thing I have learnt with being a housing officer is that you won’t always get to the end of your to-do list! Unfortunately, that to-do list is ever growing, but it is fine! You prioritise. You stay calm. You deal with it as things come. And I do think you need to be a calm person to be a housing officer but also a positive and upbeat person because you do see situations that are difficult to take home and you need to be able close the door at the end of the day and pick that up the next day and not carry it forward into your personal life.