Sir: Fi McLachlan (Letters, 31 March) feels she 'must strongly
object' to my describing sleeping rough as being a `voluntary activity' (Cardboard village', 10 March). Thomas Quinn joins in accusing me of a 'major inaccuracy' (Letters, 7 April) and cites his experience at the hands of Camden Council. But I am right.
If someone is in a well paid job and is suddenly made to leave home, that person has enough money to pay for alternative accommodation. (Although even here, a local authority will step in if it has been due to an emergency, such as flood or fire.) If someone is on income support or unem- ployed or on low pay and is suddenly made to leave home, the local authority is
LETTERS
obliged to help arrange housing benefit, to which such a person would be entitled. If in need of immediate money a crisis loan would be available under the social fund. This also means they have enough money to pay for accommodation. Groups of people with special needs are also catered for — the old, the ill, the pregnant, 'single parent families' etc. Nobody needs to sleep on the streets.
Jesse Jackson once said, 'because they see me running for the White House, they don't see the house I'm running from'. If people have chosen to leave home then, of course, some of the above rules do not apply. But they have a home available to return to — if they sleep rough instead that is their choice. I don't know what home Mr Quinn was running from when he became homeless but perhaps his run started with a jump rather than a push.
Harry Phibbs
56 Sutherland Street, London SW1
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