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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, to a question by the Hon Martin Lee on the services provided for street sleepers in the Legislative Council today (March 5):
Question:
Regarding the services provided for street sleepers, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)¡@of the estimated current number of street sleepers;
(b)¡@whether it knows the number of street sleepers who had, in the past three years, taken refuge in the shelters run by non-governmental organisations and their average length of stay; and during the period when the cold weather warning issued by the Hong Kong Observatory was in effect for 25 consecutive days early this year,
(i)¡@the respective person-times of street sleepers who had taken refuge in the above shelters and the temporary cold shelters run by the Home Affairs Department;
(ii)¡@the average daily occupancy rate of such shelters during that period;
(iii)¡@the measures in place to encourage the street sleepers to take refuge in such shelters, and whether it has taken the initiative to provide assistance to those who remain on the street; and
(c)¡@of the burial arrangements provided by the relevant departments for the street sleepers who died on the street?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) According to information collected by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in various districts, the number of known street sleepers in Hong Kong as at the end of December 2007 was 327.
(b) At present, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) subvented by SWD together operate five urban hostels and one temporary shelter with a total capacity of 192 places. These centres provide short-term accommodation and counselling service for street sleepers and other persons in need. The number of lodgers in these hostels and shelter as at December 31 in the last three years is at Annex I.
In addition to staying at the hostels and shelter subvented by SWD, street sleepers and other persons in need may also make use of the non-subvented short-term accommodation service provided by NGOs.
Lodgers in these hostels and shelter subvented by SWD are not limited to street sleepers, and as SWD does not keep separate statistics in accordance with the background of the lodgers, information such as the number of street sleepers at these hostels and shelter and their average length of stay is not available.
(i) The Hong Kong Observatory issued cold weather warning from January 24 to February 18, 2008. During this period, the total person-times who stayed in the urban hostels and temporary shelter was 4 344 (this figure includes both street sleeper and other persons in need). The total person-times who took refuge in the temporary cold shelters run by the Home Affairs Department (HAD) in the same period is at Annex II.
(ii) During this period, the average daily occupancy rate of the urban hostels and temporary shelter was 87%. The daily average person-times who took refuge in the temporary cold shelters in the same period is at Annex II. As temporary cold shelters do not have a fixed capacity, there is no basis for calculating the occupancy rate.
(iii) Since the winter of 2003, SWD has adopted a new service approach to help street sleepers and other persons in need to cope with the cold weather. The new approach focuses on prevention and early intervention.
Before the arrival of cold spells, District Social Welfare Offices will, in collaboration with the three NGO-operated Integrated Services Teams for Street Sleepers (ISTs), visit the street sleepers and other persons in need in their districts, so as to identify their needs and provide them with warm clothing in advance to help them prepare for the cold weather.
During the period of cold weather warning, the three ISTs will step up their outreaching visits (including midnight outreaching) and provide needy street sleepers with warm items (including blankets and warm clothing) and arrange for them to stay in the temporary cold shelters managed by HAD.
The Information Services Department will issue a press release to announce the opening of the temporary cold shelters. Staff of relevant District Offices will also hang banners outside the temporary cold shelters to notify the public that the shelters are open. Besides, HAD will start running a 24-hour hotline within one and a half hours after the Hong Kong Observatory has issued the cold weather warning to provide the public with information on the temporary cold shelters. Information on temporary cold shelters is also available on the website of HAD.
(c) If a street sleeper is found dead on the street, the Police will inform the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), and FEHD will remove the dead body to a public mortuary. If the body remains unclaimed after a period of time, the officer in charge of the mortuary will ask FEHD to remove the body from the mortuary. The body will then be taken to a public cemetery or government crematorium for burial or cremation according to the instructions of the forensic pathologist.
If the forensic pathologist advises burial, the body will be buried in the Sandy Ridge Cemetery and exhumed after six years, and the cremated human ashes will be placed in the communal grave of the Sandy Ridge Cemetery. In the case of cremation, the cremated human ashes will be put into a bag marked with the words "unclaimed body" and the name, age and sex of the deceased, as well as the cremation date and the number of the cremation permit. After being kept in the government crematorium for six months, the unclaimed ashes will be placed in the communal grave of the Sandy Ridge Cemetery.
If a deceased street sleeper was a recipient of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), his relatives and friends responsible for the funeral arrangements can approach SWD's Social Security Field Unit to apply for a burial grant. If the deceased street sleeper was not a CCSA recipient, and his relatives and friends have financial difficulty in arranging for his funeral, they can approach the Integrated Family Service Centres for assistance. The social workers will assess their welfare needs and render appropriate assistance, such as advising them to apply for charitable trust fund to settle the funeral expenses.
Ends/Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:56
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