A food bank for the homeless has been made homeless itself.

The Bus Shelter Family Foodbank is now looking for new premises after the sudden closure of Phoenix House in Central Avenue, Sittingbourne.

Volunteers have been forced to temporarily set up tables in an adjoining car park but director Tony Cooper says he now has two weeks to make alternative arrangements.

He said: “I have no idea what we will do. The permanent closure announcement came like a bolt out of the blue. It was a complete surprise. This is a total nightmare.

“During the coronavirus lockdown we were allowed to use Phoenix House to store our supplies but we must clear them by the end of the month. We may end up storing everything into our homes. We don’t have anywhere else.

“The problem is, there are so few facilities like Phoenix House in Sittingbourne. It was particularly good for us because it has kitchens so our volunteers could also prepare hot food.”

Mr Cooper, 53, from Swanstree Avenue, said: “Now we have a second lockdown it is more important than ever that we have a base to work from.”

The food bank used to run on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays and catered for up to 100 people a day but since Phoenix House was forced to temporarily close during the first lockdown in March it now only runs on Fridays from 10am to noon.

Mr Cooper admitted: “Phoenix House has said it is trying to find alternative accommodation for all its clients but I can’t see it happening. There just aren’t the places around. But we are going to carry on trying to do our best. We can’t let people suffer.”

His is one of more than 90 groups which have been left in the lurch by the closure of the town's main community hub.

Among them is equality rights charity Diversity House. Its boss Christine Locke fought back tears of anger and frustration as she admitted it was about to become homeless, too.

She said: “We have been based at Phoenix House for more than 13 years and then last month, out of the blue, I had a phone call telling me I had until the end of November to pack our bags.

“This is at a time when we are all fighting a global pandemic. We have 1,200 service users across the community and in schools and prisons. They need our help now more than ever. And then in the middle of all this, we have to find alternative accommodation in a matter of days.

“We have paid rent to Phoenix House but there is no way we can get space for that type of money in the High Street. Besides, I don’t want to give thousands to rich landlords when I can spend it on helping people who need our services. We need a public building.

“Six years ago we fought hard to stop Kent County Council from pulling down Phoenix House and now we have to leave and have nowhere to go. People are worried and calling to find out if Diversity House is going to stop. Well, we aren’t, because people are losing their jobs and are anxious and still need us.”

“But what worries me is that no one from KCC or Swale council has spoken to me about this. It is so frustrating I want to cry. They come to us when they need help with their health and well being. We help stop racial tension and help keep families together. But when we need help, they don’t want to know.

“Sittingbourne needs a hub. Without Phoenix House there will be no spirit of Sittingbourne.”

Swale Community Centres (SCC), a charity which runs the 30-year-old Phoenix House, said it had to close because it needed too much spent on upgrading its heating and windows to make it fit for purpose. It said landlords Kent County Council could not justify spending more than £100,000 to fix the immediate problems.

Sarah Seabridge, a director and company secretary of SCC, said: "The decision to close Phoenix House was extremely difficult and heart-wrenching. Many weeks were spent in Zoom meetings since March going through the options we had.

"However, with little finance available and the likelihood that we would not be able to cover our running costs if reopened, we simply had no choice."

She added: "SCC had, and have, provided, free of charge, the use of storage, the kitchen and room facilities to the Bus Shelter Kent Project (BSKP) to provide hot meals and food parcels to those in need.

"They were not a contracted service user and the facilities provided by SCC are a charitable gesture to support the community.

"Since March and the first lockdown, although Phoenix House (PH) was closed, we provided access to the storage for BSKP to continue to provide food parcels.

"Due to Covid guidelines we were unable to offer the continued use of the kitchen but in a recent BSKP meeting I suggested using the car park of PH to dispense food parcels. This was approved by the SCC board.

"This will be a short-term solution until Phoenix House formally closes or we find other provision.

"The directors of SCC informed our staff first of the decision to permanently close at the end of August, then our landlords, KCC and Swale councillors.

"We then notified our groups and office users at the beginning of September. All our service users, including Diversity House and the BSKP, were informed of the decision.

"We asked that all items belonging to groups or office equipment be removed by the end of November, giving them 13 weeks to prepare. We have extended this until the end of December due to the recent lockdown.

"We did not notify the media until we were sure all those involved with the centre had been informed."

She added: "KCC has been supportive with our decision and will be helping with the removal and storage of assets that we hope to be able to use in the future. We are hoping to engage with Swale council very soon."

KCC removed a grant to the charity two years ago.

Rob Fenton who chairs SCC, said: "We believe there is a real need for a community centre in the heart of Sittingbourne and it is our hope that in the not too distant future we can build a new centre with the help of key partners and interested parties."

Phoenix House attracted more than 6,000 visitors a month.

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