Vagrants avoid shelters for fear of being sent home
Print Edition
DESPITE the recent cold weather, some homeless people are opting to stay on the street rather than go to rescue shelters.
In Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, Wu Jinyu, 76, lies on a small piece of hard ground under a viaduct. Nearby, three other vagrants make their home close to the city’s bustling railway station.
“During the day I usually collect things people throw away, or just go to sleep on the railway station square,” Wu said.
On rainy and cold days, Wu, who is dressed in a ragged cotton-padded jacket, said he seeks refuge under the viaduct.
Surrounded by bags collected from garbage stations, he said: “Everything is fine at the moment.”
Guangzhou is home to several rescue stations, all of which offer free hot water and food to vagrants. But Wu and his fellow wanderers have decided to avoid them.
In accordance with local regulations, vagrants who seek asylum in Guangzhou’s rescue stations are required to leave after 10 days. During their stay they are given free accommodation and food. But they are also given a train ticket and told to return to their hometowns.
Wu said he doesn’t want to run the risk of being sent back to his hometown in the eastern province of Shandong, where he would face a cash-strapped life with an annual land rent of 300 yuan (US$49.50) and a small pension of about 700 yuan.
“I have gone to them before, but always left because I didn’t want to go home,” Wu said.
Similar problems have been reported this winter throughout China. In the northeastern province of Liaoning and in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, vagrants have rejected rescue station workers’ offers of shelter.
Many said they felt pressure in the shelters as the staff tell them when to go to bed and ban them from smoking.
Others avoid the shelters because staying at them hinders their ability to make money from begging or picking garbage, which can be as much as 100 yuan, a worker at the Guangzhou City Rescue Station said.
The plight of China’s homeless has come to the fore in recent years. In 2012, various media reported the case of two vagrants who froze to death on the street in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province, fueling concerns about the well-being of street people.
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