In response to Hawken Stocker, I have spent seven months helping a homeless person apply to Lewes District Council for housing.

It offers no help to over-20s unless they have a serious health problem.

When proof from a doctor was submitted, the council demanded new qualifications. When asked what its criteria for accepting responsibility for housing people was, it said it could not discuss that.

For the next six months my friend made phone calls, attended meetings, sought evidence and filled in forms. Staff dealing with his application changed repeatedly and he was finally refused help.

The only consistent policy I witnessed was to present an already-stressed individual with a series of illogical obstacles in the hope they would give up.

How many of us could endure this when homeless, ill and unsupported?

The ignorance of those who never test the "free helplines" perpetuates this bleak reality.

-Angela Cunningham, Lewes