I feel compelled to clarify your story regarding rough sleepers and Equinox (The Argus, August 13).

Equinox is a day centre, not a hostel. It does not provide accommodation.

Brighton & Hove have not "climbed down". We are introducing local connection criteria to day centres to ensure people are not sustained on the street when they have no option of accommodation in the city.

This pilot will restrict day services. Anyone without a local connection will be given two weeks to relocate or show active engagement with relocation services. If they do not, they will be excluded.

The council has a statutory duty to house people who meet certain criteria. Those who do not are referred to hostel accommodation. If they have a local connection, the hostel allocated will be in Brighton & Hove. If not, they will be referred elsewhere.

Drug users are not "made" to return to the area they came from but that does not mean they will be accommodated in Brighton & Hove.

People fleeing domestic violence can make a homeless application, will be found in priority need and accommodated by the council.

It is not nonsense to say hostels should only help people with a local connection. Our responsibility is to reduce rough sleeping in Brighton & Hove, not solve the problems of the UK.

The local connection criteria is very clear and St Patrick's know this. It is a part of our Single Homeless Strategy that they have been signed up to since 2001.

The funding that Alan Sharpe refers to as "our funding" is taxpayers money. It is not St Patrick's by right. This and other agencies are contractors. They are contracted to provide services to meet the objectives of the council that serves the people of Brighton & Hove.

The council puts more than £8 million into homeless services in the city. It is a problem we take very seriously. We are determined to reduce rough sleeping to as near zero as possible. Those with no local connection receive services to help them relocate to areas where they are able to receive accommodation and support.

-Councillor Jack Hazelgrove, Chair of housing committee, Brighton & Hove City Council