Re: "Cruel to be kind?", I cannot afford to buy my own house and I am sick and tired of my taxes paying for people who have no intention of changing (HT 16 January, page 28).

It's about time people were made to be responsible and pay the consequences for their actions. The junkie prostitute in the original case study, Helen, chose to take drugs and therefore become addicted. She chose prostitution. I imagine she is not working in a position that would include paying tax and National Insurance, and is more than likely claiming benefits.

As Peta Waters-Dewhurst says, there are numerous organisations that could help Helen but Helen has to seek help and stop expecting it.

Evicting her was not moving the problem from one doorstep to the next. While Helen continues in her chosen lifestyle she will always be a problem, but why should other people have to suffer because of her lack of respect for herself and for the people around her? If evicting troublesome tenants does nothing to help, what about building social accommodation just to house the tenants who won't change and insist on leading disruptive lives?

Decisions made by Waters-Dewhurst and like-minded liberals (who will never have to suffer the consequences) that blight the lives of the neighbours of "tenants from hell". Maybe if she was made to live next door to drug-taking prostitutes for six months, her attitude might change and her decisions tend more towards the decent tenants' favour.