I AGREE with Maggie Richards on "No more student accommodation until we have solved the problem of homelessness".

However I would add that alcoholics and drug addicts are also people needing care and deserving of our sympathy and they, alas, face a truly horrific future with little chance of finding a roof over their heads.

One such man came to our soup and sandwiches luncheon Mondays at the Edmund Kell Unitarian church in Bellevue Road, and he had lived for a long time on the Common, fearing to live in a hostel, probably for good reason.

I don’t know why he took to drink but he was much loved and missed when he died.

The daughter of a friend of ours who came from a very loving family managed to get addicted to heroin and although much effort was made to save her, she died a lonely death in a hotel room. She too was much loved.

There but for the grace of God...

Brenda Knopf

Highfield