During the winter solstice in 2019, LCSD staff, together with dozens of riot police officers, went to Tung Chau Street Park in Sham Shui Po to drive away the homeless who were sleeping there, and threw the homeless home as garbage. There were 14 homeless people in total in June 2019. The month filed a claim, and today (29th) went to court to wait for the verdict. Before going to court, the representative brought a photo of the deceased and homeless person to observe a minute's silence in front of the court.
Wu Weidong, the social association officer who assisted them, said that of the 14 people involved in the incident, 2 died and 3 lost contact during the one-year, nine-month claim process. He hoped that the incident would prompt the Hong Kong government to set up a homeless-friendly policy. , to protect their rights.
Someone brought a photo with them to the scene to petition
Social Association Officer Wu Weidong and Officer Chen Zhongxian, together with two representatives of the homeless, arrived at the Small Claims Tribunal of the West Kowloon Court at 1 pm today to hear the verdict. Zhao Jinxing and Ma Yuerong, the homeless who passed away during the recovery proceedings, attended the scene and held a one-minute silence at the door for the deceased, shouting slogans such as "no crime for sleeping in the rough, no reason to drive out."
Wu Weidong, director of the social association who assists the homeless, said that following Ma Yuerong's death in October last year, Zhao Jinxing passed away on March 6 this year while waiting for a verdict for one year and nine months. 3 people lost contact and could not witness.
He pointed out that the current homeless policy is not friendly and stressed that the homeless are unarmed, but the LCSD and the riot police dispatched the homeless and confiscated their property, which was unreasonable. The homeless went under the knife and recovered 26,879 yuan in legal fees, but the fact is that the personal belongings of the homeless were confiscated and incurred losses, which is equivalent to the huge cost of the government to prevent the disadvantaged from seeking justice.
This is the third time the homeless has filed a claim for compensation
Wu Weidong believes that regardless of the verdict, he reiterates that the Hong Kong government should establish a homeless-friendly policy, follow the example of New York in the United States and Osaka in Japan, and have laws to protect the homeless and provide housing support, otherwise such incidents of eviction of the homeless will continue.
This is the third time the homeless has filed a claim, after the previous two filings in 2012 and 2015.
The local film "Drifting in Turbid Water", adapted from a real story, tells the story of the "clearance operation" carried out by the FEHD and the Civil Affairs Department in 2012, when more than 40 homeless people in Tongzhou Street were abandoned and left behind. Jointly sued the government with the Social Association; at that time, the government was only willing to compensate each street sleeper HK$2,000 and refused to apologize at the request of the street sleepers.
Another time in 2015, the belongings of more than 20 street sleepers in the pedestrian tunnel of Shing Ping Street in Yau Ma Tei were discarded by FEHD staff during "clearing".
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