Mike Weatherley MP’s response in The Argus to the news of the death of Daniel Gauntlett (March 6) shows how out of touch with reality he is.

Daniel Gauntlett, a 35-year-old homeless man, was unable to find shelter in an unused bungalow due for demolition and died of hypothermia sleeping outside it.

Mr Weatherley is proud to be responsible for a new law criminalising people living in otherwise empty residential properties.

Mr Weatherley says, “It is true that some of those who are homeless have squatted but this does not make them squatters.”

This is clearly a false distinction when it comes to passing laws against an activity.

As was explained in many of the responses to the “consultation” of the Government prior to this law change, many homeless people do what this law makes a crime in order to survive.

No notice was taken of these responses.

He also says, “If squatters really cared about the homeless they would help them access council services, not scare them into believing that they would be arrested.”

The Advisory Service for Squatters has been advising squatters and other homeless people for 38 years and has been happy to help people get council housing, but this is increasingly difficult.

We would also love not to scare people into believing that they will be arrested but Weatherley’s law makes this more difficult too.

It is not clear to us which of the few surviving council services Mr Gauntlett might have had access to.

Mr Weatherley makes a false distinction between those who squat because they have to and those who might have a certain amount more choice, both of whom are criminalised anyway.

Those he considers as squatters (as against those he considers mere victims) are those who are angry with the fact that property rights are more important than people’s lives and that social housing is under sustained attack while property tycoons are responsible for thousands of empty properties.

We hope that squatting will continue to provide shelter for people such as Daniel Gauntlett, and that community spaces are saved through occupation and expressions of resistance against the domination of private property and money.

It isn’t squatters who are “society-hating”, it is those who can only understand society and human need in terms of money and profit.

Myk Zeitlin, Advisory Service for Squatters