Launching Special Campaign to Help Street People

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and 10 other central agencies launched a three-month campaign in March to help drifters and panhandlers.

Relevant departments worked in coordination to devise assistance measures, especially focusing on minors, elderly people, and people with mental illnesses. A society-wide assistance network is established with the participation of primary-level authorities, social service organizations, charity, and volunteer groups, as well as bus and taxi drivers.

Regional authorities help homeless people settle down, and place those who cannot live on their own in institutional care according to their conditions, including senior citizen homes and mental health facilities. After homeless people are reunited with their families, local governments send personnel to visit them at home, to learn if they have any difficulty in life, work, or accessing medical care. Such difficulties are then reported to related authorities, who are obliged to provide assistance to the former drifters. Civil affairs departments of county governments share information with local poverty alleviation departments to closely monitor the registered impoverished households whose members have been drifters or beggars, and provide them the help needed.