It is a welcome refuge for the dozens of men and women who find themselves out on the streets and has served its purpose well.

But charity bosses at Catching Lives open centre for the homeless in Canterbury have big ambitions for the former newspaper warehouse in Station Road East.

They want to replace it with a new £800,000 purpose-built facility, which would provide more space for other agencies to work with their clients and improve their chances.

It is a vision at present says charity manager Terry Gore, but he hopes it can become a reality in the next three to five years.

“We have had an architect look at the potential of the site so it’s a professional opinion and costing,” he said.

“The building has served its purpose well, but has always had a temporary feeling about it and we think we could so much more with extra space and better facilities.

“It would allow more agencies to work with us on site, for example, to improve the chances of our clients.”

Chairman of trustees Mark Cowland added: “Currently, our building is in a permanent state of repair and is costing a lot to keep going. We also have to rent a third of the property we don’t own which ultimately we would like to acquire.

“Our ambition is to have something purpose-built for the homeless in Canterbury but ideally we need to get the freehold issue resolved first and then we can move forward with a long term plan that people can actually see.”

The charity’s history dates back to Joan and Ralph Scrine who set up the Canterbury Open Christmas charity which later became the Canterbury Open Centre and then the Scrine Foundation in their honour.

After that charity folded in 2009 due to a variety of factors, it was reborn as Catching Lives with new trustees and staff who now want to move it to a new level.

Over the years, the building has had some modest improvements and updates internally.

Mr Gore says the charity has some funds in reserve to put towards the cost but would need to make successful grant applications to reach the sum needed.