Our funding is about to be drastically cut

Kent County Council’s funding cut will come into effect from April. It will have a big effect on our ability to support people who have nowhere else to turn for help.

We believe it’s important that everyone understands what's happening.

About the funding cuts

We're preparing for the devastating loss of £1m annual funding. This will put the future of our properties for people experiencing homelessness at risk. It’s also forcing us to scale back other work we do, such as homelessness prevention and supporting people via our helpline.

And this is happening during a cost of living crisis and housing emergency that’s pushing an increasing number of Kent residents into homelessness.

Why is Kent County Council cutting funding?

We know this isn’t the position Kent County Council wants to be in. But the truth is that they are facing extreme financial challenges. We hoped that by now, central government would have stepped in. In fact, Kent County Council has asked MPs for more help to protect vulnerable people facing homelessness.

The Government has pledged an extra £600 million to local councils across England to help them deliver key services, but it’s unclear if any of this will translate into homelessness funding. And in truth, it’s not enough to address the scale of the problem we are facing.

How will the cuts affect Porchlight services?

The future of our hostels is now uncertain: if nothing’s done, our homelessness properties will struggle to stay open. The 181 bed spaces and support they provide for people who would otherwise be on the streets will be lost. We’ll make sure that none of our residents are left without somewhere safe and suitable to live, but as more people become homeless there will be nowhere for them to go.

Thanks to public donations, there’s enough money to keep our properties open until the end of the year. But it’s not sustainable in the long-term. We need to raise £600,000 a year to keep our properties open and protect the people who live in them (the other £400,000 that Porchlight will lose was used to fund homelessness prevention work and a helpline).

We’ve had to scale back the support our helpline provides: our helpline was a valuable resource for people in Kent who had nowhere else to turn. Frustratingly, we’ve been forced to scale back the support it offers so that it didn’t disappear entirely. We’ve had to make our team smaller, focus on referring callers into our own services, and reduce the amount of advocacy work - such as liaising with councils on a caller's behalf – our staff carry out.

We’ve been forced to reduce our homelessness prevention work: our work with people who are at risk of becoming homeless has stopped in many parts of the county. If someone was at risk of eviction or having problems remaining in the family home, our homelessness prevention team would liaise with landlords and families to try and find solutions.

We’d also provide advice around money management, claiming benefits and accessing support for mental or physical ill health. We’re continuing to provide this support in a few areas thanks to funding from district and borough councils. But in areas where this support has disappeared, many more people are at real risk of ending up on the streets.

How will this affect people who will need help?

As services are scaled back or lost altogether, it will become harder than ever to help people who are facing homelessness. Remaining services will become massively oversubscribed, reducing the help available for people who desperately need it.

In addition, it’s estimated that Kent’s public sector – our NHS trusts, mental health services, police force, etc –will have to find up to £8 million more every year to support people who would have otherwise been helped by Porchlight and similar organisations.

The challenges ahead

We're determined to continue helping as many people as possible using the resources we have. We’re working hard to find new sources of income, including fundraising with the public who continue to show so much kindness and support.

Poverty, health and housing injustice are complex problems affecting millions of lives but they are also avoidable. It’s why we won’t give up working towards a safer home, better life and fairer future for everyone.

Ultimately, central government has to understand that homelessness services – in Kent and across the country - need long-term, sustainable funding if we’re to stand a chance of resolving the issues people are facing. We need more homelessness support, not less.