Stop scandal of empty properties 4/3/2004. Dear Sir, Your article on the catastrophic end to Ushi Bahler's homeless protest - Friends in battle to give Ursula a final send off, March 4 - highlights the general scandal of so much want amongst so much plenty. Her circumstances were special but the fact remains that she and others were evicted from a home in Medley Road, off Iverson Road, by the Genesis Housing Group, whose principal member is Paddington Churches Housing Association, an organisation that has an estimated 300 empty flats. Ushi did not generally use this flat for sleeping; she was too concerned to protect her position in Sumatra Road. Nevertheless, it was a warm and dry bolt hole for her when the weather got too bad. Since her eviction by Genesis at Christmas 2001, that house was handed back to the council. It has not been lived in since. When I last enquired, the council had 470 empties. The loss of revenue is extraordinary, but neither Genesis nor Camden seem bothered. Only when the owning or managing of empty property becomes as unacceptable as drunken drivers can we hope to deal with the homelessness problem. Yours sincerely,   Peter Rutherford.     Ushi's send off Final twist   Back to the web site