IN response to the story in the Evening Mail “Charity urges homeowners to open doors to vulnerable teens ”, August 17), anyone who attempts to help and house a homeless person, even for one or two nights, is doing a good deed.

I fully respect anyone who helps someone who is less fortunate than themselves because a lot of teenagers become homeless through no fault of their own; some have big family fall-outs which are beyond redemption.

However – and this is not a criticism of Nightstop UK or any other charity for that matter – however well intended the appeal for people to help homeless teenagers, it does not address the homelessness problem as a whole.

The scourge of homelessness was exacerbated in 1983 by Margaret Thatcher with her right to buy scheme. In other words, the selling off of all council houses and little or nothing has replaced them since.

Fast forward to the present where we now have a situation where greedy landlords have bought up property here, there and everywhere and are now charging extortionate rents. The cheapest rent is around £400 a month. How on earth can any homeless person afford that price? And all this does is let the government off the hook.

The only answer to this mess is a full-scale council house-building programme in order to house everyone in the name of humanity and not for profit.

Also, the compulsory seizing of all landlords’ houses so they can be upgraded to decent living conditions, again, for humanitarian reasons, not profit.

CHARLIE DOWTHWAITE

Aberdeen Street, Barrow