Broken Hill Indigenous locals have been employed to work on the Department of Community and Justice Housing Contact Centre Telephone Service.
Five lucky locals are undergoing training to deliver the phone services not just to our region but across New South Wales.
“It is a new initiative by the Director of the Housing Contact Centre, Director Wendy Keith, to employ Indigenous people in the regions to assist everyone across the State as well be available to assist Indigenous people who phone in with inquiries,” Broken Hill Housing Contact Centre Team Leader, Cindy Kronan said.
Ms Keith recognised it was important to employ people in their hometowns, so they didn’t have to leave their families and communities to work as Housing Contact Officers, Ms Kronan explained.
The lucky new employees say they are pleased with their new positions.
Paul Cole said it was great to be able to work for the local Indigenous community as well as everyone across the State.
Karly Fennell, who was working in Child Protection before, says she looks forward to having a less stressful job.
“So far, the new training has not been difficult. I was nervous before starting, but it’s OK now,” Ms Fennell said.
Jeda Sloane is also a Housing Contact Team Member now and she came from temporary care work with Community Services.
“I didn’t really work with computers a lot in the last job, so everything is new. Temporary care meant a lot of time away from the home, so I’m looking forward to working 9-5 and having free weekends,” she said.
Ms Kronin said the Housing Contact Centre receives 1.1 million calls a year and have a staff of 400 to deal with them.
Whilst the service doesn’t allocate housing, it helps with all other enquiries.
The phone service can help to apply for public housing, maintenance referral, general enquiries, Rentstart, Link2home, Home Purchase Advisory Service, reporting fraud or corruption, as well as feedback, suggestions, compliments and complaints regarding housing.
