A HOMELESS hostel serving some of Winchester’s most vulnerable people is facing closure after cuts to social services.

The looming closure of Milford House has sparked fears of bed-blocking at shelters and an increase in rough sleeping, while residents criticise a lack of support from its thinning workforce.

Lodgers have been forced to seek alternative accommodation after Hampshire County Council slashed £10 million from its support funds.

The council-funded hostel, in Christchurch Road, provides 20 rooms for people who have moved on from beds at Winchester Nightshelter or the Trinity Centre but still need help finding work, developing skills or accessing health services.

Residents believe the doors will shut once they find new beds.

Tony Paris, 54, said: “It’s making everyone’s lives a misery really, because you don’t know when it’s going to close down,” he said.

“This place, that’s what it does to you. I haven’t been drinking for about two years now and it drove me to drink again.”

Kirstie Andrew, another resident, said: “It’s really bad. We get nothing, no support.

“If we go down and ask for staff, they think that we’re being thick, [like] we don’t know what we’re doing.”

Housing association First Wessex, which operates Milford House, wrote to residents announcing the closure but denied it was a certainty when approached by the Hampshire Chronicle.

In a statement, it said: “We will be working with Winchester City Council and other housing providers to consider the future of this accommodation and we will continue to work with our residents.”

Winchester Nightshelter is looking to ease the expected shortfall of beds by renting a four-bedroom house.

But Michele Price, Nightshelter manager, called Milford House “invaluable”.

She said: “The type of supported accommodation offered by Milford House is very limited in the Winchester area.

“It plays a hugely important role and its closure would mean that this particular 'move on' route is no longer an option for our residents.

“This would reduce the number of people we can move on from the Nightshelter and, in turn, reduce the number of people that the Nightshelter can offer a bed to each year.”

Hampshire County Council’s budget for supporting vulnerable people was cut by 43 per cent last month, from £24 million to less than £14 million.

Winchester city councillors have voiced concerns that redistribution of funds could scupper successful efforts to tackle homelessness in the city.

The overview and scrutiny committee heard on Monday that rough sleeping in places such as car parks had dropped from 14 at Christmas to two, but is expected to increase to five.

Cllr Chris Pines said budget cuts will cost taxpayers more in the long term without improvements to courts, health agencies and the probation service.

“Because we do this as piecemeal, instead of having a holistic approach to supporting [vulnerable people], it costs us a hell of a lot more,” he told the Hampshire Chronicle.