SIR - The frustration of expectant mum Zoe Gibson and her partner who have to leave the YMCA as they are now technically a family is vivid and understandable.

The epidemic proportions of homelessness in the UK effects not only the individuals and communities but also the financial resources of a wide range of organisations including the budget of Worcester City Council.

Councillor Francis Lankester has a specific interest in housing issues as he sits as a board member of Worcester Community Housing and is a director of Worcester Housing and Benefits Advice Centre.

It is therefore strange and bordering on complacency that he tries to put a positive gloss on the situation by claiming the trend is going in the right direction when it is so obviously set to become worse. The expansion of Worcester University is inevitably going to place demands on the available accommodation in the city as does the gradual influx of Polish and other EU nationals who seek to work here. All of this is bound to place unprecedented strains on the city's housing and the homelessness budget. The UK population has just tipped the 60 million mark due to this.

Last year, Worcester Housing and Benefits Advice Centre was unable to help several hundred people seeking accommodation.

Additionally, the hostels in Worcester are often full, and the situation is bordering on catastrophic for the many people affected. Meanwhile, your story stated that the city council managed to "keep 78 people who applied for homelessness away from temporary facilities" over the last three months.

One wonders what happened to those people and if the financial crisis is only addressed by turning ever larger numbers away then we have not only a financial problem but a humanitarian one too.

The issue of affordable housing is important. But developers prefer to build luxury homes rather than affordable ones and not everyone can stretch to "affordable". What is required, as well as affordable homes, is lots of social housing along with the proper control of our borders and immigration policy.

ANDREW BROWN,Worcester.