Sir - In response to the letter ‘Understanding plight of homeless’, I recommend that local councillors look up www.charterforcompassion.org created by Karen Armstrong who recently spoke at Dartington.

Maybe Sidmouth could take a lead in following this charter by providing facilities for the people who frequent the seafront and for the many young people in this area who have a drug problem

There are quite a few empty properties in the area.

Perhaps local businesses could contribute to the purchase of one of them and retired social workers and other people with an interest, skills and experience to do with these problems could get together to provide a service. One such property is in Temple Street, next to the abandoned building firm with the roof demolished.

This house has been empty for years, in spite of social housing problems.

Name and address provided