THERE are going to be a lot more deaths on Bournemouth streets.

That is the message from those desperately fighting to keep open a wet-house for alcohol-dependent homeless people.

Social housing project Hannah House, run by BCHA, caters for vulnerable residents offering care and support, eventually enabling them to live independently.

It will close at the end of June - after Bournemouth Borough Council withdrew its funding due to central Government cuts - unless £150,000 can be found to save the service.

Paul Ellis, 58, has been an alcoholic since he was 15. At his peak he would drink a bottle of vodka a day. He has been sober for a year and is living at his own flat.

“I probably wouldn’t be sat here now,” he said. “That’s how much Hannah House has helped me.”

Support worker Sharon Cooper said: “People are going to get beaten or worse if they end up back on the street. I remember how poorly Paul was when he first came. We had to make sure he was really nurtured. He managed to stay sober even though he could drink - it shows real courage.”

Former resident 52-year-old Kay Mills found herself homeless following an abusive relationship.

She said: “Joe Public doesn’t understand. I read that people are glad that Hannah House is closing because ‘they’re just a lot of drunks’. Alcoholism is a disease. We don’t wake up and think ‘I’m going to drink myself into oblivion and screw my life up’.

“Whoever made the decision that Hannah House should close has no conscience. It’s just a travesty.”

Sharon said: “People make these judgements when they’re drinking a bottle of wine a night safe in their home but it’s different because they’re not doing it on a park bench.”

Former resident Tim “the Terminator” Denley died in July from a heart attack. He would be known to drink two bottles of whisky a day. But he’d steer clear of spirits at Hannah House - as all residents must - and was drinking far less under staff guidance, his sisters Sarah Eggerton and Alison Denley said.

Sarah said: “He would ring the ambulance three or four times a week. That’s a lot of money on the NHS. But that didn’t happen when he was at Hannah House.”

Alison added: “This could be any one of us. When some people get pushed over the edge they don’t know how to get that help. Hannah House does it all for them.”

HANNAH House saves more money than it costs to run, according to BCHA chief executive Martin Hancock.

He estimates that the service saves the NHS £135,000 a year through ambulance call-outs and hospital visits - approximately 600 incidents a year that are prevented by Hannah House support and management. Rather than going to A&E, residents are registered with a GP - an additional estimated saving of around £25,000 per annum.

That doesn’t include the savings to the criminal justice system by keeping homeless people from committing petty crimes and possibly going to prison. Yet to save the service BCHA needs £150,000 per year to run, Mr Hancock says. It is one of the last remaining wet-houses in the country, he said, and without it vulnerable people won’t get the help they need.

“We are realistic to know that the local authorities are under a lot of pressure - our projects may not be a priority for funding,” he said.

“It is about keeping people alive longer and giving them a better quality of life. There are people at Hannah House who are heavily addicted. We are looking at the best interest of our customers. But it’s also better value for money and I don’t think anyone would argue with that.”