Letter: Charities: the"contract culture",ethics and raising funds

From Mr Chris Holmes

Sir: Polly Toynbee is unfair in her judgement of Shelter. To say that we don't pack a punch is not true and, indeed, ill-informed: Shelter is the National Campaign for Homeless People and last year we helped over 60,000 individuals with housing problems, while at the same time mounting our biggest ever campaign, "Home Truths", which elicited 10,000 responses to the Government's Green Paper, that attempted to dismantle the homelessness legislation for which we fought so hard.

The lines between voluntary and state services have become less distinct, but being a service provider makes us uniquely placed to see clearly the homelessness crisis in this country as it is and use this information wisely.

Yours faithfully,

CHRIS HOLMES

Director

Shelter

London, EC1

17 May