People in extreme poverty in Taiwan

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
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Whereabouts, and when? Poverty in China has reduced dramatically even in the last ten years. Percentage wise there is currently a 2 percent extreme poverty rate in Italy, and a 0.5 percent extreme poverty rate in China. WHO stats with extreme poverty set at less that 1.90 US a day

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Yep, weā€™ve completely fucked that up. Our governments suck in Italy. Weā€™ve left our compatriots behind.

Weā€™re one of two countries to completely screw up the European model.

Thatā€™s hard to admit.

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Hopefully it turns around again real soon.

Extreme poverty was at about ten percent in China about ten years ago. Itā€™s now below 1 percent. Off the path places have really come on a lot

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This is why I get defensive about Taiwan. (One of my) own countries is a supposedly developed country and performs worse than Taiwan and people wanna point at Taiwan and call it developing. No way. Not in my definitions.

Still hard to admit. I love my Italy.

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Yea, Iā€™ve also noticed that people, myself included, are less likely to notice deprivation or poverty at home, but then see it stand out in other places when travelling.

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The governments weā€™ve been cursed with in Italy not only suck, but have been sucking money into their pockets.

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fyi

https://dosw.gov.taipei/Content_List.aspx?n=BF0EB1931993077A

Every local government is supposed to have this kind of office, Iā€™m guessing.

Here is a report in Chinese with English abstract.
https://www-ws.gov.taipei/Download.ashx?u=LzAwMS9VcGxvYWQvMzU4L3JlbGZpbGUvMTY0OTUvMTAxNzU5L2E1NGU1MDdkLWVhMTItNDMyZS1iZmYzLWI1OGM5ODQzNzM1Ny5wZGY%3D&n=NzIxODEwNDc0NzU2LnBkZg%3D%3D&icon=..pdf

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poor taste comment deleted in hindsight

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I have mentioned how difficult it is to get government assistance in Taiwan. Homeless people would never count as they would not have a hukou.

The system is designed so those who really need the benefit would never get it.

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Vast majority of homeless people have some sort of mental illness.

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31

it seems if they are registered as homeless, they get a meal per day from government or cooperating organizations. In Taipei.

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Or he may have been too mentally ill to think to use what was made available to him.

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how does the hukou system work?
if you are registered in taoyuan and then come to Taipei and ask for help, I understand they might tell you to apply in Taoyuan.
but if you go in Taoyuan and say ā€œIā€™m homeless pls help meā€ they will turn you away?

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Almost certainly has mental health issues to boot.

Edit, Rowland made the same point above.

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Part of them are counted as homeless in stat. I have no idea what portion of them are registered, though.

Many of them had normal life before they became homeless. Their hukou may be moved out in many cases. In some cases they may still have active hukou. In either cases, they often donā€™t want to tell their identity because they donā€™t want to be know by their families or relatives.

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Migrant workers in rural areas? I met some people displaced by the Typhoon some years back up in the mountains that were living in some pretty dire circumstances. Not sure if itā€™s under the poverty line being discussed, but not all poverty is in the cities and some places up in the mountains have poor living conditions.

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getting registered may be a barrier for homeless people.

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The owner of The Key gym donates probably 40-50 lunchboxes once a week at Taipei Main Station. He personally goes there to hand them out. Some restaurants donate the lunchboxes and another gives him a really great price for the remaining ones. I donā€™t know if there are any other organizations that do this kind of thing. The problem for the homeless is usually mental illness or substance abuse which makes them unemployable. Many times, they have family but theyā€™ve burned some bridges or refuse to follow the rules so they go to the street.

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39

The hukou system can cause problems on getting assistance.

  1. being registered in another district than where you are living
  2. if the income of the family huji is above a certain level or shows substantially assets you may not be eligible for any benefits. It happened to a single mother I know. Her mother has a house and some farmland ā€¦
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40

Another reason homeless people are homeless is that they want to be. They cannot or donā€™t want to live in homeless shelters or public accommodation (due to addiction, fear of violence, cannot share with other people, severe mental illness ). Vast majority you see are these hardcore cases I would say.

I know this from TV interviews I saw of homeless people in Wanhua district.

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