Rough sleepers have been ordered to leave a makeshift homeless shelter or face prosecution.

Since mid-February homeless people have been squatting in a house in Providence Place, Brighton.

But now a magistrate has handed the owner a possession order for the site.

The building, which according to activists had lain unused for some years, had become known as the Autonomous Homeless Shelter.

Now its 16 residents have two weeks to find somewhere else to live before being forced out onto the streets.

After the squatters were served with eviction papers around 25 demonstrators gathered outside Brighton and Hove Town Hall and slept outside overnight to protest at the move.

Chris Ward, a rough sleeper who has squatted in the building for a month, said the decision would leave many homeless people with nowhere to sleep.

He claimed the group had carried out much-needed repairs to the “derelict” house, which has running water but no electricity.

He said: “I’ll have to go and sleep out in the fields. It’s a real disappointment because there was a lot of good work going on there.

“Lots of people used to be at the St Patrick’s night shelter, which was closed in January, but now they’ll have nowhere to go.

“We’re all shattered by the decision. Now most people will just go and find somewhere else to squat so it doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Mr Ward said around 35 people had slept at the Autonomous Homeless Shelter since it began.

George Dowswell, who attended court on behalf of the squatters, said the group would be appealing the decision “on the grounds of morality”.

He said they would try to negotiate with the owner to stay before the bailiffs are sent round to carry out the possession order.

Mike Weatherley, the MP for Hove, said: “I am sceptical that all of the squatters in question are genuinely homeless. Most choose to squat after all.

“But, that aside, this building needs to be brought back into use, which must involve redevelopment. For this to happen, the squatters simply have to leave.”