Non-governmental organisations distribute warm clothing as temperatures set to plummet
NAOMI.NG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 12 January, 2016, 8:08pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 12 January, 2016, 9:46pm
Social workers and volunteers hand out blankets to street sleepers ahead of a cold snap. Photo: SCMP Pictures
After four years of sleeping on the streets, 54-year-old Chu Chi-ho said he had learned to hoard what he could to get through the cold winters.
The makeshift shack he assembled with discarded furniture that he now calls home is stuffed with second-hand jackets, blankets and mats that were donated by NGOs over the years.
“I couldn’t even sleep properly last night. It was cold and the blankets were soaked with rain,” said Chu, sipping a cup of warm soup handed out by volunteers.
As temperatures are forecast to drop below 13 degrees in the coming week, NGOs have been making trips across the city to deliver warm clothing.
“We’re constantly monitoring the weather reports. Once we know it’s going to get a little colder, we head out to distribute the goods,” said Janet Jan Nga-chun, a social worker with St James Settlement.
On Monday night, the Society for Community Organisation distributed 150 thermal jackets and 70 blankets to street sleepers in Sham Shui Po and Yau Ma Tei – where most homeless people live.
The number of homeless people hit a record high last year, with the figure almost tripling over the past decade from 600 in 2004 to 1,614 last October, according to a city-wide headcount by 300 volunteers from five universities and four NGOs.
Street sleepers can also stay overnight at temporary shelters in the area that are opened when a cold weather warning is in force at 4:30pm.
The Observatory issues a cold weather warning if the minimum daily temperature falls below 12 degrees in urban areas.
There are 13 temporary shelters across the city, each able to hold 100 to 200 people, where free food is also distributed.
Chu, who lives under a flyover, said he had stopped going to temporary shelters even if winters were too hard to bear.
“Last time I went to one during a typhoon and all my things were stolen, so I would rather just stay out on the street,” said Chu.
Leung Man-kit, who has been homeless for a year, recalls times when he was stuck out in the cold with nowhere to go.
“You put on all the clothes you own. And then all you can do is try to find a spot where there is not as much wind and just get through the night,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1900468/cold-snaps-hong-kong-street-sleepers-learn-tough
