December 16. It does indeed beggar belief -- after reading John

Macleod's uncharitable article about the homeless (''It beggars belief .

. .'' December 10). I recognised the name of the author as being that on

a similarly uncharitable piece on Aids.

Then I wondered whether in fact this man is real: perhaps the name is

imaginary and this is some new form of black humour writing with which

I'm unfamiliar or, more cynically, a method of generating more letters

to the editor.

John Macleod talks about people making the ''choice'' of becoming

homeless. Recently my husband, along with volunteers all over the

country, chose to take part in a ''sleep-out'' to publicise the

homelessness issue, and he can personally vouch for the discomfort of

making that choice -- even if for only one night.

Surely even John Macleod must have enough imagination to realise that

the ''choice'' of sleeping rough is none other than Hobson's.

If he is really so concerned about the problem of homelessness, for

whatever reasons, perhaps rather than writing unpleasant articles about

it he might consider helping those who are actually trying to find

constructive ways of tackling the issue.

Alison Hannan,

38 Collieston Path,

Bridge of Don,

Aberdeen.