Porchlight homelessness charity is in consultation with staff to cut 18 roles across its services for community drop-in, admin, client voice and communications.
The charity, which works across many Kent districts, says it has had to make difficult decisions due to significant cuts to its funding from both national and local government, including a loss of £1m annual funding from Kent County Council which came into effect in April.
Roles now in consultation include the team that runs drop-in sessions at ARK in Cliftonville and in Dover. The Porchlight Open Door {POD} scheme was expected to have a two year run from September but now looks likely to finish by the end of this year.
An insider said: “PODs drop in sessions are for people to come in off the street. They do not have to be homeless. They come and have a cup of tea, some company and advice if they want it.
“This is working with people who often have nowhere to go, it bonkers. We were told it would be a two year project {from September 17} so it has been a bit of a shock. People have been in tears, clients have been in tears because of how much this means to them.
“We’ve no idea what to do. It’s a consultation but it feels like a done deal.”
It is understood the consultation started on November 3 and runs until December 3, with any redundancies taking place by December 31.
The open door scheme runs at ARK in Albion Road every Wednesday from 10am to 4pm and every Tuesday at Dover Baptist Church. As well as taking part in activities, advice can be sought on issues such as benefits, housing and debt.
Porchlight’s new CEO Tom Neumark (pictured), who started in his role last month following the retirement of Mike Barrett, says the organisation is trying to explore alternative avenues.
He said: “Porchlight is currently in consultation with staff around proposals to cut 18 roles.
“We have had to take this extremely difficult decision as part of a wider programme of savings, due to the challenging economic conditions we are operating in. Demand for our services has never been greater, but at the same time, we have seen a significant reduction in funding from national and local government.
“We are seeking to minimise the impact on our services; however, our community hubs in Dover and Thanet could be affected. We want to reassure anyone who uses these services that we are working with staff and local partners to explore alternative options.
“We would like to thank our supporters, whose very generous donations have mitigated the full impact of the funding cuts, allowing us to continue providing vital services, albeit at a reduced scale. However, we need to take these necessary steps to ensure we’re in the strongest possible position to continue helping those who need our help more than ever.”
Porchlight marked its 50th anniversary this year with tent installations across Kent highlighting the deadly reality of homelessness with a powerful message that people living on the streets are unlikely to make their 50th birthday.
Thanet’s homelessness services include work by the RISE team which offers both outreach and runs 24/7 accommodation and services for people who have been rough sleeping at a former refuge property in Cliftonville.
That service received £3,808,270 of funding by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in 2022 to cover three years up to April 2025.
This week the government announced an emergency £10 million fund to protect rough sleepers from cold weather this winter.
The money will go direct to councils in the highest need. Thanet council will receive £29,584.
A Thanet council spokesperson said: “Thanet District Council’s RISE rough sleeping provision is funded until March 2025. No further funding has been confirmed at this stage.
“Following the government’s budget announcement on Wednesday 30 October, it is believed that Local Authorities will be invited to bid for funding in the coming weeks.
“We can confirm the recent announcement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about the Rough Sleepers Winter Pressures Fund. Thanet District Council will receive £29,584. It will help us to increase the number of indoor places to sleep for people who would otherwise be sleeping rough this winter.”
Last year, 155 people died sleeping rough on UK streets. Government statistics providing a ‘snapshot’ of people rough sleeping in a single night for 2023 showed 23 people on the streets in Thanet, a rise of 64% on 2022. Most of those {20} were aged over 25. The majority of those rough sleeping, 18, were men.
In the Autumn budget last month it was announced an additional £233 million will go to tackling all forms of homelessness, taking total spending on reducing homelessness to nearly £1 billion in 2025-26.
This action is prompted by a sharp rise in rough sleeping nationally, which is nearing record levels. Unprecedented numbers of children are in temporary accommodation and almost 360,000 households approached their council for help with homelessness in the last year.
No surprise there, government cuts. First they came for the pensioners..
I know it’s confusing but Kent County Council isn’t the government.
Did you miss the bit where it says “significant cuts to its funding from both national and local government” or just choose to ignore it?
That’s our supposed socialist government, they steal from the poor & give to the rich.
Cut to Porchlight funding made by Conservative run Kent County Council.
Who are borderline bankrupt after 14 years of Conservative austerity cuts to local authority funding.
Meanwhile the Socialist government have just announced an emergency £10 million fund to local councils nationally to protect rough sleepers from the cold this winter, of which Thanet gets £29.5k.
On top of the Socialist government’s additional £233 million to tackle all forms of homelessness.
And Labour could solve it right away & keep the elderly warm. Instead they made the choice to burn 11.6 billion on overseas climate crisis that will make zero difference & waste the 22 billion phony black hole money contracts they gave to the hedge fund for the proven to be useless carbon capture-in return for their 4 million bung. They also gave the King a 50 million pay bonus. Tough choices indeed.
So if you arrive by boat your not homeless at any point and taken care of by us tax paying working people. Stolen off us by our government’s. But if your a English legal resident your homeless. How about we don’t pay our taxes aslong as we give it to the English homeless charities to house our own people and take care of the old and let the government personally pay for the illegal immigrants. Get Nigel Farrage in number 10 quick .
Spending a bit on education, particularly English literacy, wouldn’t come amiss.
Absolute joke this country has become nobody got balls stand up make change,let’s be honest nobody coming here because war it’s the benefit system they want not job and goverment expect me go work pay for it,while my tools get nicked out van.
They can build new roundabouts in Tunbridge Wells but homeless, child care in Thanet is not a concern. Conservatives in power, alternative Conservatives letting them do it.
Porchlight is an amazing service with a wealth of knowledge and skills in supporting people who face homelessness and any loss will be felt keenly by the community.
This is such a worrying decision from KCC so close to the start of the cold weather period. And disappointing that KCC should do this so soon after the good news for TDC of an additional £29.5k of central government funding for homeless services.
At the end of the day, housing and homelessness is a District Council’s responsibility to deal with, so presumably Kent County Council thinks it OK to pull out of helping out in any way.
No, it is your parties responsibility to fund councils properly. Instead your leaders & nearly all your MP’s are too busy lining their pockets with Sugardaddy Alli’s ‘freebies’ & all the others your party is in bed with throwing bungs at them, lobbying, stealing from the poorest to give more to the richest etc. The Labour Party ceased to exist after 124 years-it is the new Tory Party & is only interested in the super wealthy & what MP’s can get for themselves.
While you lot at local level cheer them on & blame it all on the useless Tories we voted you in to get rid of their corruption, incompetence & sleaze with something better. Instead we got something even worse/more corrupt. Cannot wait to vote you lot out at every level-after giving you my votes locally & nationally in 2023 & 2024.
Just to point out that Michael Gove, the Tory housing minister, got a bung of £100,000 from a London property developer.
Records don’t show how much of that Mr Gove spent on housing provision for the homeless.
How many people in Thanet District Council area have been identified and counted as sleeping rough and without homes?
“PODs drop in sessions are for people to come in off the street. They do not have to be homeless. They come and have a cup of tea, some company and advice if they want it”
On the face of it, this doesn’t seem the best use of taxpayers’ money.
A lot of people are quietly desperate. May not be homeless but may have very inadequate housing as well as other problems. Somewhere to go for a cuppa might make all the difference eh? And hardly a big drain on the taxpayer.