A refuge which has helped 300,000 homeless people off the streets is facing the axe.

St Patrick's Trust, which has offered shelter and sympathy to the homeless for more than 20 years, has been rocked by financial crisis and may be able to stay open for just a few months more.

Brighton and Hove City Council is threatening to withdraw funding worth £200,000 from the 22-bed refuge in Cambridge Road, Hove.

The authority has written to its founder, Father Alan Sharpe, to tell him it wants to see the shelter decommissioned.

St Patrick's takes in people who are already homeless when they arrive in Brighton and Hove - contrary to the council's policy that only local people who become homeless should have public money spent helping them.

Fr Sharpe said: "It is morally wrong to have to adhere to council policy and only take in local homeless people.

"About half the people who come to the shelter are from outside Brighton but the council should realise that Brighton is like a magnet to people and many of these people arrive with nowhere to go.

"To threaten to take away our funding just as the winter begins to set in is completely wrong.

"Already the shelter is full and we already have seven or eight people sleeping on the church hall floor."

The shelter has an-all night cafe for those who don't manage to get a bed and there is a food distribution service and education centre.

The council has said no one would be made homeless but insisted its funds should go only towards helping local people.

Fr Sharpe said if some people had to be turned away they would go back on the streets, resort to squatting or sleep in office buildings.

He said: "We may be able to persuade the council to keep us funded until the end of the financial year in April but we don't know what will happen after that.

"It is vital we have financial support from the council each year to keep our operation going and keep people off the streets, especially in winter."

Council chief executive Alan McCarthy is in talks with the trust to thrash out a possible compromise.

A council spokesman said: "Nobody will be put on the streets as a result. The council's concerns are to ensure that any resources it distributes are aimed at local homeless people."

Fr Sharpe received the most nominations in the Argus poll earlier this month to find the person who had done the most to change Sussex.

He is hoping to raise awareness of his charity's plight with glow-in-the-dark wrist bands.

He said: "We very much hope that local people will support us and the work we do by wearing our bands and making small donations of time, food or money to help us care for homeless people throughout the coming winter.

"Our night shelter is always full in the winter months. We need help this year more than ever."

To buy a wrist band visit www.whereareyousleeping.com St Patrick is continuing to appeal for food donations.

Write to 1-3 Cambridge Road, Hove, BN3 1DE, telephone 01273 733151 or visit www. stpatrickstrust.org