Homeless 街友

Hanching Chung 2013年8月9日上午10:38 提到...

經濟學人的這篇.剪貼在那. 主要它談的是各國界定"街友"的官方的可運作定義. 台灣的公視月前曾有詳細紀錄萬華龍山寺街友的影片--片中說警方有所有街友的詳細清冊. 而這只是台灣街友的冰山一角.....

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在我居住的城市裡，近七天內遇到兩位五十歲上下的人向我要五十元。當時是白天，我車停在路邊等人，先是遇到一位男士，隔幾天後在不同地點又遇到一位女士，他們衣裝尚稱整齊、整潔、合時，態度平靜，並未攜帶餐具、寢具。

這是一個嚴肅的社會問題，政府與民間機構應當主動協助他們，而不是等待他們前去求援。

這些街友可能會造成一些凌亂的景象，他們需要人協助食宿、大小便利、沐浴、換洗衣物等等問題。忽視他們，他們會成為不良幫派凌虐、傷害、殺害的對象。他們會被利用去當下列事件的「人頭」：偽造保險理賠事件、冒用信用卡等金融事件，這些不良幫派得到滋養之後，會衍生更多犯罪事件。

即使沒有上述事件，絕大多數的街友都受過相當的教育，居住在一般家庭，曾經擁有正常工作。他們或許個人理財犯了錯誤，或者與外在社會發生齟齬而適應不良，他們需要幫助。

閱讀聖嚴法師傳記時，我的皈依師聖嚴法師自己說曾在紐約市作了短暫的街友，當時法師與他的弟子(美國人，第一位跟法師學禪的美國弟子，後來也成為一位傑出的禪修老師)從垃圾尋找食物，也沒有人提供住所。

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上圖與底下引文，引自位於台灣的「華人戴明學院」部落格：

新經濟學與台灣戴明圈: The New Economics and A Taiwanese Deming Circle

http://demingcircle.blogspot.tw/2013/08/how-do-you-count-homeless.html

SINCE the financial crisis of 2008 the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of London has more than doubled, according to charities' estimates. But besides the highly visible vendors of street-newspapers such as the Big Issue, the homeless often try to avoid attention and stay hidden. Those without a fixed address are not covered by any conventional census. So how exactly do countries measure their homeless populations?

It partly depends on the definition of homelessness. Britain has two categories: "rough sleeper", meaning someone who sleeps on the streets; and "statutory homelessness" for people who are in temporary accommodation or otherwise at risk of losing the roof over their head. America, Ireland and Sweden use the same two categories under different names. But no international standard exists. Italy has no exact definition. Norway combines the two groups. In New Zealand and France anyone without habitable accommodation is considered homeless.

The best way to count rough sleepers is to go and find them. Los Angeles and New York recruit volunteers to comb the streets. In New York this happens every year; in Los Angeles every two years. London is particularly good at keeping track. Every day charity workers try to find the city’s homeless. Some ride the night buses. To avoid double counting, the outreach workers take homeless people's names, waking them up to do so if necessary. Lack of English, use of drink and drugs and suspicion of the authorities all make it harder to get this information. Finding those in precarious or uninhabitable accommodation is more difficult still, as Britain keeps a record only of those who apply to the government for help. There is likely to be a considerable number of so-called "hidden homeless", people living in squats or temporarily staying with friends or family. For these couch-surfers no reliable estimates exist. Outside London, the counting of rough sleepers is patchy.

The European Union attempted to introduce a standardised method of counting the homeless as part of a census in 2011. Only Poland followed the guidelines, counting both those sleeping rough and those in temporary accommodation. Going to find rough sleepers is expensive and time-consuming so most governments simply don’t bother. Paris has not kept a record since the mid 2000s. While snapshot counts like that of Los Angeles provide only a limited amount of information, the length of time people spend on the streets is critical. Even with surveys like London’s it is inevitable that some people are being missed. But things are getting better: part of the reason for the dramatic increase in the number of rough sleepers in London is that more people are going out to find the homeless than ever before.