ISE25/20-21

• In Hong Kong, the issue of homelessness^{1Legend symbol denoting There is no internationally agreed definition of homelessness. A useful reference could be the European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion ("ETHOS"), a typology developed by the European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homeless. Apart from people living rough (or so-called "street sleepers", i.e. living in the streets or public spaces without a shelter that can be defined as living quarters), the "ETHOS Light" (the typology's shorter version) proposes that the scope of homeless populations could be extended to cases ranging from those who are living in non-conventional dwellings, emergency accommodation or accommodation for the homeless to institutionalised people who are staying longer than needed in health institutions or penal institutions due to lack of housing prior to release. See Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2021a).} has drawn much attention from the community. According to the Social Welfare Department ("SWD"), the number of street sleepers nearly tripled from 511 to 1 423 during 2011-2012 to 2019-2020. Moreover, it is widely believed that the actual number of homeless people is even higher given that cases not approached by SWD or non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") are conceivably not recorded in Street Sleepers Registry ("SSR").^{2Legend symbol denoting See Hong Kong Council of Social Service (2017), I. CARE Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and City-Youth Empowerment Project, Department of Applied Social Science, City University of Hong Kong (2016), Kornatowski, G. and Wong, H. (2018) and Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Welfare Services (2017).} These homeless people are usually found sleeping rough in public places like parks, subways and space underneath flyover, but some of them may be staying overnight at 24-hour shops such as fast food restaurants. Homelessness is admittedly a complex issue, much more than just a housing matter but comprises an array of challenges related to the victims' adverse life experiences. Given the complexity of their problems and needs spanning multiple fronts, many homeless people tend to feel isolated or being excluded from the wider society. While the Government has been subventing NGOs to provide support services including temporary accommodation and employment-related assistance to the homeless, some Legislative Council Members and concern groups have repeatedly called on the Government to introduce more supportive measures to tackle the growing social problem associated with homelessness.^{3Legend symbol denoting See GovHK (2017), Hong Kong Council of Social Service (2017), I. CARE Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and City-Youth Empowerment Project, Department of Applied Social Science, City University of Hong Kong (2016), Kornatowski, G. and Wong, H. (2018), Minutes of Joint Meeting of the Panel on Welfare Services and Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene (2017), Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Welfare Services (2017 and 2020), Social Welfare Department (2020a and 2021) and 黃洪(2018年).}
• Globally, many places have put in place targeted policies to assist the homeless. For example, Japan formulated in the 2000s a basic policy to support the homeless to become self-reliant. At prefecture level, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government runs a self-reliance support system with various kinds of assistance to help the homeless, particularly through employment assistance. The results have been quite remarkable after almost two decades of operation. The city has also put additional effort to pre-empt people with higher risk from falling victim to homelessness. For Singapore, which shares similar socio-economic characteristics with Hong Kong, the city has developed a partnership network with NGOs to garner more support in the community, including the provision of more temporary shelters to offer safe places for the homeless to stay overnight. This issue of Essentials begins with an overview of the support measures for the homeless in Hong Kong, which is followed by a discussion of the approaches and measures adopted by Tokyo and Singapore to cope with relevant issues.

Hong Kong

• In Hong Kong, the handling of street sleeper-related issues involves a number of government departments, including SWD, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Highways Department, Home Affairs Department and Hong Kong Police Force. Among the departments, SWD has been maintaining the SSR since 1981. Both SWD and NGOs providing services to street sleepers are required to update SSR on a monthly basis by registering newly confirmed cases and de-registering cases where it was confirmed that the persons concerned have quit street sleeping.^{4Legend symbol denoting See Social Welfare Department (2017).} On a per 100 000 population basis, the number of registered street sleepers increased from 7 to 19 between 2011-2012 and 2019-2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic grinding many economic activities to a halt, the figure rose further to 21 at end-2020.^{5Legend symbol denoting In calculating the number of registered street sleepers per 100 000 population in 2011-2012 and 2019-2020, the population in mid-2012 and mid-2020 is used. See Census and Statistics Department (2021), Legislative Council Secretariat (2019) and Social Welfare Department (2021).} Sleeping at 24-hour shops (e.g. fast food restaurants) has, in particular, drawn much publicity in recent years. According to SWD, this sort of street sleepers went up by 38% from 152 to 210 in the two-year period ending 2019-2020.^{6Legend symbol denoting See Social Welfare Department (2021).}
• Among the registered street sleepers as at end-2020, half of them attributed their homelessness to inability to pay rent arising from unemployment or failure to identify affordable accommodation.^{7Legend symbol denoting Ibid.} A survey on the homeless conducted by two local universities in collaboration with four NGOs in 2015 produced similar results. Other than incapability of paying rent, relationship problem with family/tenants was another frequently cited reason for homelessness. Moreover, nearly one-third of respondents had experienced chronic health issues, and 29%, 27% and 13% of them had addiction/abuse-related issues relating to alcohol, gambling and drugs respectively.^{8Legend symbol denoting Respondents excluded individuals already staying in overnight or temporary accommodation for street sleepers. See I. CARE Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and City-Youth Empowerment Project, Department of Applied Social Science, City University of Hong Kong (2016).} Some concern groups in the community have called on the Government to enhance existing and/or introduce new one-stop services that would be broad enough to cover life counselling, medical care, mental rehabilitation and drug addiction treatment, in combination with transitional accommodation to more holistically help resolve the core problems faced by homeless people.^{9Legend symbol denoting See I. CARE Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and City-Youth Empowerment Project, Department of Applied Social Science, City University of Hong Kong (2016), Kornatowski, G. and Wong, H. (2018) and Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Welfare Services (2017).}
• In fact, SWD has been subsidizing three NGOs since 2004 for each of them to operate an Integrated Services Team for Street Sleepers, offering services from outreaching visits and employment guidance, to service referrals and emergency shelter/short-term accommodation.^{10Legend symbol denoting The three NGOs subsidized by SWD to operate Integrated Services Teams for Street Sleepers are Christian Concern for the Homeless Association, Salvation Army and St. James' Settlement. See Social Welfare Department (2020a).} Altogether, NGOs provided a total of 635 places of overnight or temporary accommodation for homeless people in 2019-2020, comprising (a) 222 places subvented by SWD that are provided free of charge or at minimal rental fee for a period of six months; and (b) 413 places operated on a self-financing basis.^{11Legend symbol denoting NGOs are granted a higher degree of autonomy in setting the duration of stay for their self-financing places vis-a-vis subvented places. Lodgers of subvented places are generally allowed to stay for six months at most, although responsible social workers have a certain level of flexibility in extending the period of stay based on the needs of individual cases. See GovHK (2018), Minutes of Meeting of the Panel on Welfare Services (2018) and Social Welfare Department (2020a).} During their stay, social workers will provide the homeless with various types of assistance, including identification of more stable accommodation. Nonetheless, compared to some 10 years ago, the overall supply of short-term accommodation places remained at a similar level even when the official count of homeless people rose steadily.^{12Legend symbol denoting During 2011-2012 and 2019-2020, the number of subvented places only rose by 10% from 202 to 222, and increased slightly to 228 in 2020-2021. See Legislative Council Secretariat (2019) and Social Welfare Department (2020a and 2021).} Between 2011-2012 and 2019-2020, the Government had indeed increased the annual expenditure on homeless services by 62% to HK$23.6 million.^{13Legend symbol denoting See Social Welfare Department (2016b and 2021).} However, the increase failed to keep up with the growing number of homeless people. To put it in perspective, the average annual expenditure per registered street sleeper case declined from HK$28,600 to HK$16,600 over the period.
• Housing is often the first and foremost need for the homeless, as with many other types of vulnerable people. Under the current policy, registered street sleepers are not given any priority over general applicants when applying for public rental housing ("PRH"). To provide special housing assistance to those having imminent long-term housing needs including street sleepers, there exists the Compassionate Rehousing ("CR") for early allocation of PRH. Homeless people, like others in need, can approach SWD for applying for such assistance. SWD will recommend the application to the Housing Department for consideration of flat allocation if it is assessed that there is no other feasible means to solve the housing problem owing to special social and medical needs.^{14Legend symbol denoting See Labour and Welfare Bureau (2018) and Social Welfare Department (2016a).} According to the information available earlier in July 2013, there were just about 20 street sleepers allocated PRH on CR ground in the preceding two years. The limited number of successful cases could possibly be attributable to various restrictions for CR allocation.^{15Legend symbol denoting See Minutes of Joint Meeting of the Panel on Home Affairs and Panel on Welfare Services (2013).} For instance, the street sleepers applying for CR will not be recommended for PRH if their family members, with whom the applicants are not willing to live, have already been allocated to PRH.^{16Legend symbol denoting Also, homeless people are not eligible for Compassionate Rehousing if they have ownership of local residential properties. See Social Welfare Department (2016a).}

Japan

• After the burst of Japan's economic bubble in the early 1990s, homelessness emerged as a social problem in the local community because more homeless people were spotted residing in public space like parks and river banks.^{17Legend symbol denoting See Okamoto, Y. et al. (2004).} In response to the strong request from local governments for a national strategy to tackle the issue, the central government enacted in 2002 a law, namely Act on Special Measures concerning Assistance in Self-Support of Homeless (ホームレスの自立の支援等に関する特別措置法, "Homeless Act"), with an emphasis on self-reliance through employment assistance.^{18Legend symbol denoting The Homeless Act was intended to be a time-limited law, initially set to expire in 2012 (i.e. 10 years after its promulgation). Yet because there were still nearly 10 000 homeless people in 2012, the Homeless Act was extended for five years to 2017. Although the number of homeless people further decreased to 5 500 in 2017, aging of the homeless and lengthened duration of street sleeping were registered in the national survey. To deal with these emerging issues, the expiry year of the Homeless Act was extended for another 10 years to 2027. See 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年), 厚生労働省(2012年), 厚生労働省：《ホームレスの実態に関する全国調査(概数調査)結果》(2017年), 参議院(2012年) and 衆議院(2017年).} Under the Homeless Act, homeless people are defined as those living in city parks, river banks, roads, railway stations or other public facilities. The central government has formulated a basic policy for self-reliance support for the homeless, and provided funding to local governments to devise and implement their plans accordingly. The Homeless Act also requires the central government to conduct national survey on the homeless in conjunction with local governments on a regular basis.^{19Legend symbol denoting See Kiener, J. (2014), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2021b), 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年) and 厚生労働省：《ホームレスの自立の支援等に関する特別措置法》(2017年).}
• Based on the Homeless Act and the national basic policy, each local government further devises their own self-reliance support measures for the homeless to better cater to local circumstances. Taking Tokyo, a metropolis of Japan, as an example, homeless people admitted to the self-reliance support system will first be provided with temporary emergency accommodation as well as food and clothing at homeless self-reliance support centres (自立支援センター, "HSSCs") for two weeks, during which their physical and mental conditions will be assessed. Those assessed to be capable of working will then remain at HSSCs to receive employment help and other support, while others determined as lack of self-reliant ability will be transferred to other welfare facilities or be supported with other public assistance based on their conditions and needs.^{20Legend symbol denoting See Kiener, J. and Mizuuchi, T. (2018) and 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年).} The features of HSSCs are as follows:
  
  

  (a)	Accommodation: similar to Hong Kong's temporary accommodation places for the homeless, HSSCs are entrusted to relevant NGOs. Lodgers with work capability can stay for a maximum period of six months. At present, there are about 350 accommodation places in HSSCs. During their stay, they will be provided with integrated support including life counselling, health, psychological, housing and legal consultation to enhance lodgers' ability to become self-reliant. In 2021, the budget set aside for the operation of HSSCs amounted to ¥1,475 million (HK$104 million);21Legend symbol denoting See Kiener, J. and Mizuuchi, T. (2018), 東京都財務局(2020年), 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書》(2019年) and 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年).
  (b)	Employment assistance: while HSSCs are operated by NGOs, staff from governmental employment service centres are assigned to HSSCs to provide vocational consultation and placement services to lodgers. Besides, HSSCs also cooperate closely with a publicly funded organization, namely Tokyo Council of Promotion of Employment Support Business for the Homeless (東京ホームレス就業支援事業推進協議会, "the Employment Council"). The Employment Council was formed in 2005, i.e. a few years after the promulgation of the Homeless Act, with a view to giving employment assistance to the homeless and those on the edge of homelessness due to unemployment or unstable jobs. It comprises members from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, chambers of commerce, labour organizations, social welfare organizations and academic institutions.22Legend symbol denoting See Kiener, J. and Mizuuchi, T. (2018), 東京ジョブステーション(2020年 and 2021年), 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書》(2019年) and 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年). Among other employment support such as provision of job information, the Employment Council holds seminars to give lodgers of HSSCs advice on job-seeking, guidance on preparation of résumés and training on interview skills. More specifically, lodgers of HSSCs can take part in the career experience programme organized by the Employment Council in cooperation with different companies in the private sector. Under the programme, participants will be given a chance to work in actual workplaces for a short period (usually within one month) with an incentive pay from the Employment Council. Likewise, employers will also be rewarded with a subsidy to cover the cost of providing opportunities for the homeless to gain working experience.23Legend symbol denoting The career experience programme is run in four prefectures which have relatively more homeless people (i.e. Aichi, Kanagawa, Osaka and Tokyo). Based on public domain information, the levels of incentive pay and subsidy in Tokyo appear not available. In the programme implemented in Osaka, participating employers will be rewarded with a maximum subsidy of ¥18,000 (HK$1,269) for programme up to 16 days and participants will receive an incentive pay of ¥3,000 (HK$212) per day. See 大阪ホームレス就業支援センター(2021年), 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書》(2019年) and 厚生労働省(2006年). Through joining the programme, it is expected that participants will become less anxious about employment with stronger motivation to work, while employers can hire suitable staff based on their performance;24Legend symbol denoting In sum, there were an annual average of 7 100 people getting a job with the help of the Employment Council during 2014-2017, representing its considerable effort into providing employment opportunities for those in need. See 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書》(2019年). and
  (c)	Aftercare services: to prevent recurrence of homelessness, aftercare services in the form of regular home visits, sharing sessions, vocational and legal consultation, etc. are provided to users within one year upon their departure from HSSCs.25Legend symbol denoting See 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書》(2019年) and 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年).4

• HSSCs, as one of the central measures to help the homeless in Tokyo, have sheltered over 22 100 people, or an average of over 1 100 annually since inception. Nearly half (49%) of them became self-reliant with a job.^{26Legend symbol denoting See 東京都福祉保健局(2020年).} Partly because of the presence of the self-support reliance system, the overall number of homeless people in Tokyo declined considerably by 86% from 6 361 to 862 during 2003-2021. On a per 100 000 population basis, it represented a drop in the homeless from 52 to 6.^{27Legend symbol denoting The extent of reduction is similar to that of the whole country. At the national level, the number of homeless people was reduced by 85% from 25 0296 to 3 824 over the same period, or from 20 to 3 on a per 100 000 population basis. See 東京都総務局統計部(2006年 and 2021年), 厚生労働省(2007年 and 2021年) and 総務省統計局(2010年 and 2021年).}
• While there has been a significant reduction in the number of homeless people, there have also been noticeable unfriendly, discriminatory or even violent encounters against them. In view of this, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have been holding public talks on the human rights of homeless people in an attempt to eliminate the discrimination and stereotyping in the community. On the educational front, the human rights issue of homeless people is among the topics included in the teaching guideline on human rights education in public schools. In the guideline, background about the Homeless Act and materials on the current situation of the homeless in Tokyo, alongside illustrative examples, are given to teachers for conducting relevant extra-curricular activities in upper secondary schools, in a bid to deepen students' understanding about issues concerning the homeless.^{28Legend symbol denoting See 東京都教育委員会(2021年), 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書》(2019年) and 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(第4次)》(2019年).}
• On the other hand, there have been thousands of people in Tokyo sleeping in 24-hour shops (e.g. internet cafés, comic cafés, capsule hotels) by paying a low fee.^{29Legend symbol denoting See 東京都福祉保健局(2018年).} These people, mostly jobless or with unstable jobs, are technically not considered homeless people under the Homeless Act even though they may still seek help from the Employment Council. Considering that they may be at a higher risk of becoming street sleepers, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched a consultation-based life support initiative in 2008, namely Tokyo Challenge Net ("TCN"), to render proper support to these people. Apart from counselling and consultation services, TCN also provides legal advice free of charge to clients facing debt problems or labour issues. Moreover, it organizes a free learning course for those who lost their jobs but are interested in working in long-term care services, a sector with severe labour shortage. Those admitted to the course can apply for interest-free loans (at a maximum of ¥950,000 (HK$67,000)) repayable in five years to cover living expenses.^{30Legend symbol denoting The loan debts can be written off if participants find a job in long-term care services within one year upon completion of the course and continue to work for at least six months. See TOKYOチャレンジネット：《介護職支援コース》(2021年) and TOKYOチャレンジネット：《仕事・生活・住居・資金、お困りごとは》(2021年).} The TCN programme appears to be quite well-received. According to the latest available data, the number of enquiries, service reservations and consultations handled by TCN registered a marked rise of 39% from 3 222 to 4 489 during 2014-2017.^{31Legend symbol denoting See 東京都福祉保健局：《ホームレスの自立支援等に関する東京都実施計画(平成26年策定、第3次)に定める施策評価書(2019年).}

Singapore

• In Singapore, the government does not offer official statistics on the number of homelessness. In 2019, a local university conducted a study to determine the scale of homelessness through a nationwide street count of homeless people. The Ministry of Social and Family Development ("MSF") was in support of the study and helped mobilize social workers for the count. The study, conducted through a cumulative count over several months followed by a single night count, estimated that there were some 900-1 100 homeless people in Singapore, meaning that there were 16-18 homeless people per 100 000 population. Common to many places, employment-related problems, family conflicts and break-ups, and housing affordability problems were among the major reasons for homelessness .^{32Legend symbol denoting See Ng, K.H. (2019) and Singapore Department of Statistics (2021).} As the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Singapore's economy hard, the number of homeless people is believed to have gone up since the study.
• Homeless people in Singapore with no other viable housing option can apply to stay in transitional shelters temporarily. Analogous to Hong Kong, these shelters are funded by the government and run by NGOs. Lodgers can reside in these shelters for no more than six months generally, and social workers will work with lodgers to address their issues such as health and family problems, and help secure long-term stable housing for them.^{33Legend symbol denoting Besides transitional shelters, there are also welfare homes managed by NGOs with government funding. Welfare homes are targeted specifically at destitute persons who lack family support and cannot care for themselves, so it is believed that only a small proportion of homeless people are eligible. For these destitute persons, admission to welfare homes is statutory under the Destitute Persons Act. See Ministry of Social and Family Development (2018), Parliament of Singapore (2019, 2020a and 2020b) and Singapore Statutes Online (2020).} Since 2017, MSF has been partnering with other government agencies and various NGOs to organize regular night walks to better reach out to the homeless, hoping to directly share with them the available services and dispel their doubts or resistance over the support services. Following this collaboration, MSF has taken a step further to form the Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers ("PEERS") Network with other government agencies and NGOs in 2019, with a view to achieving better coordination and stronger support by pooling resources and expertise together.^{34Legend symbol denoting See Ministry of Social and Family Development (2019), Parliament of Singapore (2020a and 2021a) and The Straits Times (2019).} Major features of the network are as follows:
  
  

  (a)	Engaging street sleepers: facilitated by MSF, the PEERS Network partners offer their support according to their strength, from befriending to mentoring. The Network has been joined by about 35 organizations or units since launch, and there is a PEERS Office under MSF to oversee the homeless services;35Legend symbol denoting See Parliament of Singapore (2021a) and The Pride (2020).
  (b)	Offering sleeping shelters: some of the PEERS Network partners have been voluntarily offering their premises as Safe Sound Sleeping Places ("S3Ps") for homeless people to rest overnight. S3Ps are typically sited in premises of religious organizations (e.g. churches, mosques, temples), and can be in the form of a hostel room or informal bed space in a hall, basement, etc. They complement existing traditional shelters, making it easier for the government and NGOs to engage the homeless. These S3P providers generally allow the homeless people to stay in their premises until they have been referred to transitional shelters, secured long-term housing options, or their issues have been resolved. Though the government does not get involved in direct provision of facilities, MSF has given guidance on converting premises into S3Ps. There were about 700 S3P spaces as at May 2020.36Legend symbol denoting See Bless Community Services (2020 and 2021), Parliament of Singapore (2020a, 2020b, 2021a and 2021c) and The Online Citizen (2020). During the nationwide lockdown arising from the pandemic, S3Ps allowed the homeless to stay at the premises during day time as well;37Legend symbol denoting To curb COVID-19 infections, a nationwide lockdown was imposed between April and June 2020. The requirement that every individual must stay home during the lockdown, unless with specific reasons (e.g. working for essential service providers, get essential goods and services), caused S3Ps to expand the operating hours to let the homeless stay indoors for a whole day. See Gov.sg (2020) and Parliament of Singapore (2020b). and
  (c)	Initial outcome: the Network, by pooling together the resources and expertise, appears to be quite effective. By end-2020, it has cumulatively engaged 1 200 homeless individuals over one and a half years through outreach walks or referrals. Among them, 12% already moved into public rental housing and 9% either returned home, moved into family members' homes or accommodation arranged by employers, while the rest were arranged with temporary shelters like S3Ps. Noting that some homeless people are not eligible for public rental housing (e.g. having family members who can house them or not meeting citizenship criterion), the Singapore government has pledged that the relevant authority will work with the PEERS Network partners to assess the circumstances of each case, and may exercise flexibility to grant them a tenancy if all other housing options for the individuals have been exhausted.38Legend symbol denoting See Parliament of Singapore (2021b).

Concluding remarks

• Homelessness is a mounting public concern in Hong Kong, especially given the growing number of street sleepers. The situation has been further aggravated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. As such, there have been calls for the Government to strength the effort to address the issue. In Japan, it has put in place a national homeless law almost 20 years ago that focuses on supporting homeless people in achieving self-reliance through employment assistance. At the local level, Tokyo has set up self-reliance support centres to serve such purpose, with a range of employment assistance including work trial opportunity to reduce homeless people's anxiety over employment. These measures have yielded generally desirable outcomes, with the homeless population dropped markedly over the past two decades. This apart, preventive support services dedicated to people on the brink of homelessness complemented other initiatives also help contain the problem associated with street sleeping. Moreover, targeted help in facilitating this sort of unemployed persons to secure employment in sectors that are facing labour shortage can potentially provide added benefit to the relevant businesses as well. In Singapore, while its basic services model for the homeless is similar to Hong Kong's, it has in recent years enhanced collaboration with NGOs via a cooperation network to, among others, facilitate more outreaching services and the opening up of more temporarily safe places/shelters in the community for the homeless. Though homelessness is a complex matter involving a lot of personal and social issues, these overseas examples, especially positive experience arising from selected initiatives, may shed light on strengthening support measures for the homeless in Hong Kong.

Prepared by Dickson CHUNG
Research Office
Information Services Division
Legislative Council Secretariat
26 August 2021