On Dec. 13, a 59-year-old street sleeper who had worked as a food delivery worker was found dead at the intersection of Fa Yuen Street and Nullah Road in Kowloon’s Mong Kok district.

Two months earlier, a homeless woman was found dead in a 24-hour McDonald’s at a public housing estate in Kowloon Bay in Kowloon. It is believed, from security camera footage that she was a street sleeper who regularly spent her nights in McDonald’s.

These are terribly sad stories at a time when people are preparing to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Efforts should be made to help street sleepers, by both the government and Hong Kong-based nongovernmental organizations. Wealthy tycoons are urged to donate money to assist these street sleepers.

The government is well-advised to provide more shelters for homeless people and in some cases, after careful screening, allow them to apply for public housing. Four or five street sleepers of the same sex can share one public housing unit.

Hong Kong is a prosperous and thriving city. Wealth created should be shared by the haves and have-nots. The plight of the homeless is a stain on Hong Kong’s fine international reputation.

The city’s property prices have continued to climb in recent years, partly due to limited supply and strong demand from mainland investors. Rising rents and perpetually low incomes have apparently forced many working people onto the streets.

The number of homeless people in Hong Kong, a City University of Hong Kong (CityU) study has found, totaled 1,414 in 2014. The number was far higher than the government’s last citywide tally of 674 in 1999.

CityU’s eight-month Homeless Outreach Population Estimation project involved a count at 180 locations, including temporary shelters and 24-hour restaurant chains. The university also surveyed 323 homeless people and found 40 percent of them were supporting themselves through low-paying jobs, with an average salary of HK$5,688 ($734). About half the respondents had attended high school.

Traditionally, it has been drug abuse or mental health issues that forced people out of family units to live on the street, experts say. But these “new homeless” are often employed and have solid family backgrounds. It is economic necessity that makes them street sleepers, according to professor Wong Hung of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Social Work Department.

A subdivided flat in Kowloon’s Shum Shui Po district costs at least HK$4,000 today. Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po have the highest number of homeless people among Hong Kong’s 18 districts.

About 93 percent of those polled in the CityU survey were male and the average respondent stayed homeless for about four years. There are three NGOs each operating an Integrated Services Team for Street Sleepers. A package of integrated services including counseling and outreaching are provided. These aim to help them give up street sleeping and to be reintegrated into the community. Integrated Services Teams for Street Sleepers are organized by NGOs St. James’ Settlement, Salvation Army and Christian Concern for the Homeless Association.

Before the next tragedy occurs (such as the sudden death of another street sleeper), let us boost our efforts to help street sleepers in Hong Kong. Wealth created in society should be shared by both the rich and poor. Let us all protect this core value of Hong Kong.

By Fung Keung

Fung Keung is a veteran journalist and an adjunct professor at Shue Yan University. — Ed.

(Asia News Network)