Ex-offenders are worried they could be left to fend for themselves when an Oxford halfway house closes next year.

Roken House, in Lake Street, South Oxford, provides accommodation for 11 ex-offenders, but has been told its £121,000-a-year Oxfordshire County Council funding has been axed.

And one of the residents says he would rather commit another crime than end up on the streets.

County Hall said the decision was part of a review carried out with the probation service to target more high risk offenders.

People living in the house have been told they will have to move out by March — and many are worried they have nowhere to go.

Steve Taylor, a recovering alcoholic who lives at the house and relies on the support services, said the news had come as a blow.

Mr Taylor, 48, said: "We are all worried about ending up on the streets because there is hardly anywhere in Oxford we can afford to live."

Mr Taylor said he had worked hard to turn his life around since his release from prison two years ago.

He said: "I can't speak for the others, but I would rather commit a crime and go back to prison than end up on the streets.

"I've seen what living on the streets is like and what it can do to people."

Karl Tilley, 35, who has lived at the house for four years since his release from Stocken Prison, in Rutland, is also worried about the future.

He said: "It is quite distressing not knowing whether you are going to end up on the streets, vulnerable to the same things that influenced me before and got me into trouble.

"When I got into trouble before, I was vulnerable to peer pressure and was binge drinking. I do worry about getting into trouble again."

Roken House has been a home for ex-offenders who require help with mental health issues, drink and drug problems and educational needs since it opened in 1983.

More than 500 ex-offenders have been through its doors in that time.

The county council's supporting people scheme — which administers funds to about 450 projects helping 11,000 vulnerable people across Oxfordshire and backs Roken House — is to slash funding by 55 per cent to about £8m in 2019.

Supporting people manager Geoffrey Ferres said money needed to be targeted on "high risk" offenders.

He added: "Exact details are still being sorted out between all the organisations involved, and a lot of hard work is being done to ensure effective future support and supervision for offenders and ex-offenders in Oxfordshire."

A spokesman for Stonham, a housing association which provides accommodation for vulnerable people and which owns Roken House, said it was now working with Oxford City Council to try to find alternative accommodation for the people living there. No decision had been made about the future of the property.

He said: "Obviously, we can't guarantee we will be able to find housing for all of them.

"A major issue is the lack of available and affordable housing in Oxford.

"Having a safe and stable home environment is crucial to a person's life chances, and if clients have nowhere suitable to move to, it is very hard for providers like Stonham to give them any meaningful chance to live independently.

"Understandably, many of the clients are distressed and unhappy, and we are doing our utmost to support them."