Desk research exercise on homelessness in HK

 

Desk research exercise on homelessness in HK

Article 1:

Homeless people increase amidst the COVID-19 outbreak: MSF provides temporary shelter and free medical consultations

(url address: https://msf-seasia.org/news/19070)

Six months into the COVID-19 crisis, Hong Kong is facing the third wave of COVID-19 infections; the most severe yet with many of the cases locally transmitted, some from unknown sources of infection. Where public facilities and services have been suspended because of the virus, homeless people have been particularly affected. At the same time, Hong Kong’s homeless numbers have increased due to the economic downturn and increased unemployment rate. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has found that the number of homeless people in Tsim Sha Tsui district has increased by 50 per cent within a month, especially after mandatory suspension on dine-in services. Some are first-time street sleepers due to job losses during the outbreak. MSF is concerned that they are particularly vulnerable and often neglected during the pandemic and has been providing emergency shelter and free medical consultations since June.    

 

Article 2:

HK's homeless rely mostly on helping hands as number rises

(url address: https://www.chinadailyasia.com/article/149332)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong is seeing a spike in its homeless population as the COVID-19 pandemic further marginalized this disadvantaged stratum in one of the world’s least affordable cities.

 

According to latest Social Welfare Department (SWD) figures, Hong Kong had 1,491 registered street sleepers as of September this year, a significant increase from 1,297 before the pandemic hit. Older, third-party studies have repeatedly suggested the actual number could be higher.

Helping hands

Jeff Rotmeyer, founder and CEO of local NGO ImpactHK, saw “an overwhelming number of new faces” on the streets since COVID-19 reared its head in the city. What is even more alarming is that quite a number of people younger than the usual cohort became street sleepers, he said.

 

Article 3:

Oblate missionary walks with Hong Kong street sleepers

(url address: https://www.ucanews.com/news/oblate-missionary-walks-with-hong-kong-street-sleepers/89427#)

Priest's help proved vital after Covid-19 restrictions forced 24-hour restaurants to close at night.

For almost 10 years, Ah Ming slept in a public place in Hong Kong's airport. Last year, after authorities restricted entry only to staff and travelers, he began sleeping inside one of the 24-hour McDonald's restaurants.

But that luck did not last long for this 75-year-old man. He was forced to sleep on the streets after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the city and restrictions forced all 24-hour restaurants to close at night.

The restriction meant all McRefugees — homeless people sleeping inside 24-hour McDonald's restaurants — moved to the streets. Hundreds now live on underused footbridges or roadsides and use public toilets.

One such area in the city is Rest Garden in the Yau Ma Tei area of Kowloon district, where scores of homeless people live.

However, Ah Ming was fortunate to meet a Catholic priest who helped him find shared rented accommodation. Father John Wotherspoon of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate walks through the Yau Ma Tei area each day looking to help homeless people.

…. After the government asked restaurants to close at night as part of the Covid-19 restrictions early this year, the priest launched a campaign to fund a resting place for the homeless.

The campaign collected HK$1.6 million (US$155,000) in donations, mostly from Catholic parishioners. The money helped more than 40 homeless people find cheap rented accommodation and to open a shop selling used goods.

The priest said some street sleepers own houses but rent them out and sleep in "free places" to generate income. But they are not a priority for him.

Ah Ming said spending nights in the airport was fine because "at least there is a shelter and a place to shower, and the food is only HK$20 per lunch box — for those of us who live on government subsidies, this is a good choice."

 

Article 4:

Hong Kong's "New Homeless" Epidemic

(url address: https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/english/features/professor-wong-hung.html)

February 2015

Hong Kong faces a homelessness epidemic produced by its surging property prices and huge wealth gap, according to CUHK Professor Wong Hung. Such street sleepers are largely invisible to ordinary citizens but are a rising demographic.

Traditionally it has been drug abuse or mental-health issues that forced people out of family units to live on the street. But these "new homeless" are often gainfully employed and have solid family backgrounds. It is economic necessity that makes them street sleepers.

Professor Wong first detected changes in the makeup of the territory's homeless population in a comprehensive census study in 2000, and a similar study in 2004. In the first study, through head counts and case studies, he determined that the average age of street sleepers, at 50, had fallen rapidly from 54 in a government study conducted shortly before. One-fifth of the homeless were under 40, double the old ratio. One-third were able-bodied working poor or unemployed people who suffered as Hong Kong entered recession. Three out of four cited economic hardship as the initial force pushing them onto the streets.

The situation abated as the economy recovered from recession that began virtually in lockstep with the outbreak of SARS. But Professor Wong has seen it pick up again this decade and in 2014 in particular. He now estimates there are 1,000 "new homeless" in the city and that these economic outcasts make up 60 per cent of the homeless population.