I think we need to be a little careful of this thinking here in Taiwan. It’s my understanding that in Taiwan, some are just old dudes (and gals) who ran into some health issues, didn’t save much for retirement, and are now too embarrassed to go home. I can’t point to any studies. It’s definitely not downtown LA here with the homeless.
Good for him. And there are some church organizations (one or two?) in the Taipei Main Station area who pass out lunchboxes. There is also an area where some homeless can sleep in the winter months. There are also a couple of stairwell type of places where some of them camp out.
Taiwanese government expects family helps their members first. If you have family on paper, it is hard to get a support for low income.
There are shelters for homeless people, but many of them prefer outside rather than there, due to many rules, no privacy, etc.
Who can get services depend on organizations. Some give their services only to people with government certificates, some give to anyone who wants/needs.
Right now the economy isn’t bad and there are basic supports there for most.
There is a fair amount of hidden poverty in the outlying towns and villages, I feel most concerned for single mothers or grankids living with grandparents in those places, some rough living conditions. Also some undocumented kids and migrants. I think that’s a bigger issue, welfare.
This is from 2010 though I don’t think that much has changed for Taiwan in terms of poverty. According to the study, the poverty situation in Taiwan is the most similar to gasp Germany and Canada.
Im wondering coz in america in the news said they give a foodstamp to those homeless and many in the news that have been interviewed said they inject drugs or buy drugs and i said to myself how this people buying a drugs without money?unless there is someone supply to them and for me if i am a citizen of america and i can say i am lucky imagine i have foodstamp and a money also coz they can buy drugs…i dont know how it works the in america
And in sweden homeless people have a 1k.monthly support from the govt and i dont know how about the shelter or housing if they give it to the poor people and i know the govt help them to find a work
And lastly in singapore in 2004 when i visited there i didnt saw any homeless on the street and i have read that majority of singaporean people i think 99 percent have a house the so called HDB its either some people living with there family…but about the monthly support from the govt or even housing i dont know in singapore
And i hope taiwan is doing much better for housing,monthly support,food or shelter etc.for the homeless people…
For me social welfare is nice for its citizen so that there is equality and justice for all than the money being kept or going to the corruption Or corrupt people
This is true, I tried to hand out free clothing to homeless with a group once around main station. Only half of them took clothes the other half were ashamed to accept any kind of charity as it would dishonor them though it was obvious they wanted the clothes…they really struggled to accept any help…I had to talk a few into it by saying it would help us if they took the clothes so we didn’t have to carry so much or throw it out, bad for environment etc
When I worked at a small tech company outside Tainan, they provided these lunchboxes that we paid 15nt for. Most of us didn’t like the food so we would go get something simple for 40nt like a 當歸鴨 or a vegetarian noodle soup. One lady in the office would deliver our unopened lunchboxes to some of the elderly nearby living in pretty bad conditions. Probably not the ideal diet for an old person but my coworker said they appreciated it and I enjoyed not eating the lunchbox and joining my friends for lunch.
