90 per cent of the homeless are Malaysians

with jobs
Tan Su Lin,Astro Awani |Updated:July 05, 2014
(First published on: July 05, 2014 08:41 MYT)

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KUALA LUMPUR: Only 10 percent of homeless persons on the streets of Kuala Lumpur are
non-Malaysians.

This means 90 percent of them are in fact locals.

According to Reach Out Malaysia president and founder, Pete Nicholl, the demographics of
those sleeping on the streets directly correspond with the demographics of the nation in terms of
race, religion and ethnic background.

The local charitable organisation has been operating in Kuala Lumpur and Klang since 2008.

"There is a misconception that the people on the streets are foreigners, drug addicts, criminals
and Mat Rempits", he said in an interview with Astro AWANI.

"However, based on our experience, less than one percent of people we serve everyday are in
fact non-Malaysians or those with drug or alcohol issues. That means out of the 13,000 people
we serve each month, less than one percent are actually foreigners," Nicoll added.

Nicoll also disagreed that food given out free is creating the homeless issue.

He argued that the free food had acted as a tool to find out who the street people are, what skills
they have and what is needed for them to be able to reintegrate back into society.

"We need to understand majority of them are actually working. The issue is they do not have
enough diposable income to even afford a room. Most do not come from Kuala Lumpur, they are
from all over the country such as Perlis, Kedah, Terengganu, Melaka and Johor," he said.

"They come here to find work but do not have enough education qualification to find high paying
job so they take up low-income jobs," he added.

He said some are also left homeless because of errant employers who absconded, closed down
their factories or have not paid salaries to their employees for up to four months, leaving them
with no choice but to sleep in the streets.
He said a comprehensive support system is crucial to eradicate urban poverty and to ensure that
lesser people end up homeless.

He said many countries have successful models in dealing with poverty, including proper social
welfare as part of the nation policy to help those in distress.

Norway for example, has a social charter with its people that says no one will be poor.

"If someone loses their job, the government will step in and provide financial and other means of
support to the person to find employment. That keeps the person going and also ensures that
houses are not repossesed," said Nicoll.

He said the United Kingdom has severe poverty problems from austerity cuts made by their
government due to deficit.

However, their social welfare system provides financial benefit to those unemployed and seeking
for jobs. They also have job centers all over the country for people seeking employment.

"The job seeker is given an allowance for a period of time but you must go to the job centers,
register and be interviewed. After some period of time, if you do not take up the work or go for
interview arranged or find employment, then the benefit will stop," he said.

He cited the United States as an example, where as part of the state government's mandate on
social welfare, city councillors are directed to provide accommodation purely for the homeless.
The rents and utility bills are free, with the housing the local council providing counsellors for the
homeless to help reintergrate them back into society.

While some countries are trying help the poor to come off the streets, in Canada, the Vancouver
city councillors implemented foldable shelters on benches in the city.

"If it rains or the weather is too hot, they can use the foldable shelther and sit under the shade.
That is the humanitarian effort to assist those people," said Nicoll.

Back at home, Reach Out Malaysia hopes to eradicate poverty in Malaysia, state by state, city by
city.

Considered to be 'The Frontline in the Fight To Eradicate Poverty, they hope to bring dignity
back to the forgotten who inhabit the streets and doorways of Kuala Lumpur.

In the last two years, they had managed to reintegrate 402 urban poor into employment by
working with the corporate sector in Malaysia.

70 were assisted to return to their states of birth.

FROM: http://english.astroawani.com/malaysia-news/90-cent-homeless-are-malaysians-jobs-
39082
Homeless in KL
BY JOSHUA FOONG AND SHAUN HO

There are many homeless people in Kuala Lumpur, including those who have
jobs but do not earn enough to rent a room or house. They sleep on the streets
of popular areas in the city.
When nightfalls, scores of homeless people take over parks and five-foot ways,
turning areas in Kuala Lumpur into their home for the night.

These homeless in the capital city are not all beggars or vagabonds. In fact, many of
them hold jobs during the day.

However, they do not make enough to pay for houses or rooms and find it easier to
make ends meet by sleeping on the streets.

There are no accurate figures on the number of homeless people in the city as only a
few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are aware of their existence.

Many do not even look shabby and a few even have cell phones and dress well.
Some who have chosen to live on the streets said they did so because of family
feuds at home.

The Star team visited one popular area which is an open space in Jalan Pudu, Kuala
Lumpur. The area has more than 100 people.

Many among them said they seldom go hungry in the city as it is a place abundant
with food but they fear what happens when they go to sleep at night.

A drive through prominent landmarks in the city like the Petronas Twin Towers, KL
Tower and shopping malls may reflect a nations progress.

But behind the bright lights, lying in the shadows under the night sky are the
homeless. At dawn, they will make way for the hustle and bustle of the city.

A guard at a car showroom in a well-known area filled with the homeless will ask
those who choose to spend the night at the showrooms doors to leave by 6am.

They will go. We have this understanding. Even my bosses know about it, the
guard, who only wants to be known as Devan said.

From there they will line up at various relief centres for the homeless to wash up,
he added.

One of the regulars at his place, Shila, 42, will proceed to wash up at her usual
relief centre and then, like many others, make her way to the usual spots to find odd
jobs.

We will be lucky if we get them but there are more oppurtunities for jobs in Kuala
Lumpur than in any other city in the country, she said.

By noon, she is normally done with work and having earned a measly RM15, she will
join hundreds of others at a soup kitchen run by the Archdiocesan Office for Human
Development in Jalan Bukit Nenas.

After that, she is left to fend for herself.

I will have to secure a suitable place to spend the night and hope that everything will
be all right the next day, she said.

All we need is sincere attention. We are desperate to have a roof over our heads,
have decent and regular jobs and not be stigmatised by society, she added.

Many rejected by their family and society

Dressed in a polo T-shirt, long pants and leather shoes, Amrans appearance can be
deceiving. His fluent English also makes it hard to believe that somebody like him
can be homeless and living on the streets for the last 30 years.

Contrary to popular belief, there are many people just like me well dressed and
presentable living on the streets for years. Never judge a book by its cover, said
the 59-year-old from Johor.

Amrans parents were estate workers who died when he was in his teens. Having no
family and no place to stay, he grew up roaming from town to town.

I got these high quality clothes from a foreign ambassador. I do odd jobs by helping
his officers pack his unwanted things, he said during a free lunch at the
Archdiocesan Office for Human Development in Jalan Bukit Nanas recently.

Amrans friend, Monica (not her real name) said her latest set of clothing was also
second hand. Both said it was their only attire.

Monica, in her 40s, wore a light pink cotton blouse with a track bottom. We will wear
these until they are worn out, she said, adding that she dressed up so that she
could fit in with the rest of society.

If we go into a restaurant not properly dressed, we will be ostracised and chased

out, she said.
That is why there are many people dressed up like us. The homeless are not just
people with torn clothing and uncut hair. We are a misunderstood group, Amran
said.

Many people put the homeless into a pigeonhole. Most of the time I feel
misunderstood. I feel like a burden and a liability, he said.

Amran added that facing rejection every day was a huge barrier for people like him
to crawl out of their predicament.

Unlike others, our families do not accept us anymore. There are some of us who
have done things that we are so ashamed of that we do not even want to return,
said one of them who only wanted to be known as Mak Liah.

Five years on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the 42-year-old ex-drug addict said she
was not given a second chance when her family found out she was hooked on
drugs.

Mak Liah also said she had children but that they lived with their grandmother in
Johor.

These are my family now, shesaid, referring to the five kittens she had recently
adopted.

Her neighbour for the night, Jit Kaur, said broken families was the main reason why
they were living on the streets.

We have nowhere to go to. My husband died. I have a daughter but she is in

Kelantan and her husband refuses to let her have any contact with me. My brother is
in the Philippines, she said.

Furthermore, who will employ an ex-drug addict who is 62 years old? Jit added.

On why she chose to sleep on the streets, Jit said she had tried going to a public
welfare programme but that did not turn out well.

The officers treated us like children. We werent given anything to make for
ourselves other than cleaning the compound of the welfare centre, she said.

When I complained about the futility of me being there, I was then instructed to
attend counselling sessions, she added.
According to Jit, going back to the streets gave her a greater sense of freedom but
that she would give anything to have a normal life, even if it was just basic and
simple living.

I am getting old and it worries me. Sometimes I do not know how long I will be
around if I continue to live like this, she said.

Seeking out the homeless

In the wee hours of July 7, Statistics Department officers took to the streets of Kuala
Lumpur to survey the homeless living on the streets.

This exercise, the first of its kind, was also simultaneously conducted nationwide in
other big cities in conjunction with the national census launched the previous day.

Statistics Department Asst Comm Rozita Talha said the homeless had always been
included in the nationwide census but that their numbers were merged with other
figures labelled as others.

This would be the first that the homeless were being categorised under a separate
group.

This was done to improve the collection and processing of the figures, she said.

However, there has been no indication on whether the figures would be made
available.
The responsibility of improving the lives of this group falls under the Welfare
Department.

A fact sheet on the homeless by the Welfare Department estimates there are about
2,500 individuals who are living this way.

Among this group are those who are destitute with no means of supporting
themselves, beggars and vagrants, drug addicts, mental patients and even those
who have jobs but cannot afford housing.

There are a multitude of factors leading to them taking to the streets for refuge, but
the more sad ones are because of family issues.

Some run away from home because of violence while others have been ostracised
by their family members because they are drug addicts or suffer from AIDS.

However, the fact sheet describes the presence of the homeless as disturbing the
peace of city dwellers and affecting the image of the nation, especially to tourists.

The Welfare Department frequently works with government agencies such as the
police, City Hall, Labour Department as well as the National Anti-Drug Agency in joint
operations to take them off the streets.

The homeless would then be put into institutions, some which offer skills training to
those who are still productive, or old folks homes, all of which are located in other
states.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wa said the homeless did not necessarily
add to crime.

However, some of them may fall victim to drug addicts desperate for some money.
Some have been robbed and injured, he said.

He added that the police could not arrest them unless they had committed an
offence.

Getting up close and personal

Star reporters JOSHUA FOONG and SHAUN HO took to the streets of Kuala
Lumpur for a week to see for themselves what it was like to be homeless.
The first day, we decided that we should first gain the trust of the homeless.

We followed a group of volunteers from Kechara Soup Kitchen to a spot off Jalan
Tuanku Abdul Rahman.
Upon seeing us arrive with packets of donated food, the homeless people staying in
the area already familiar with the order of things formed a queue.

Some were dressed smartly from head to toe. But there were also those who only
had the tattered clothes on their backs and went barefoot.

If somebody else had told us this story, we would have assumed that the homeless
were a sorrowful bunch. Surprisingly, we were greeted with smiles of gratitude
despite the poverty that they were in.
They were happy that we took time to meet them and give them food and even
thanked us by name.

While distributing food, we were also told that there was an open space near
Petaling Street, just in front of the Cahaya Suria building where about a hundred
homeless people spend the night every day.

The next day, we dressed down T-shirts, shorts and slippers and waited at a
mamak shop overlooking the square to find out for ourselves.

We waited, and true enough, their numbers grew to about 100 by 1.30am. However,
we were unsure how to approach them.

One of them, Nelson, whom we befriended during a food-sharing programme earlier

saw us and came over to greet us.
When we told him we were The Star reporters and wanted him to show us the place,
he obliged and said he trusted us.

We have some form of understanding with the police. Most of us are not criminals.
So we are seldom disturbed by the police when we sleep here, he said.

Sometimes being around the streets at night makes us watchmen, too, he added.

It was the wee hours in the morning, but social workers were still on their rounds
distributing food.

Thankfully it is those who come to help us, not disturb us, Nelson said.

As we were talking to Nelson, the social workers came up to us and asked if we had
received our share of food.

It is hard to distinguish if a person on the street is homeless or not.

We are already in such dire straits. Most of us are trapped in this situation.

We are desperate to come out from it, but people should know we cannot do this on
our own, Nelson said.

The new friendship had the both of us thinking of Nelson after we parted ways.

Although we had common thoughts, opinions and hopes, unlike the two of us,
Nelson has been bedding down for the night on cardboard and his bag for a pillow
every night for the past seven years.

On compassionate grounds
NGOs have found their way into the hearts of the homeless living in Kuala Lumpur.

Every day, hundreds of poor and homeless citizens have a decent meal thanks to
the efforts of NGOs such as the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development
(AOHD), Kechara Soup Kitchen (KSK) and Reach Org.
These NGOs do their best to provide them with one meal a day and medicine if
required.

But more importantly, it is the kindness of these strangers that they look forward to.

Jace Chong, 27, a producer in KSKs video department, said she loved seeing the
glow on the faces of the street people whenever the volunteers arrived to distribute
meals to them.

KSK delivers meal packets every evening during the weekend at various locations in
the capital. The packets consist of hot food, fruits, some bread or biscuits and water.

I started volunteering in 2008 and I feel good helping them. They appreciate what
we are doing because few people show them care or pity, she said.

Over the years, Chong got to know many of the regulars personally and checks on
them every time she goes on her rounds with other volunteers.

She said many of them had been living on the streets for so long that they were now
used to it.

They have freedom to do whatever they want. There are no schedules to follow and
nobodys telling them what to do.

However, she said most of them were far from being happy.
Most of these homeless people do want a proper home or to return to their families.
But they have problems that they need to iron out first before they can start anew,
she said.

KSK volunteer Low Su Wen said volunteering gave her the opportunity to talk to the
homeless and she now saw them as people who needed care.

They tell me about families who will not accept them. A lot of them have been
ostracised by their own families. It is sad because it is their families who are
supposed to take care of them.

They have no choice but to set out and fend for themselves, said Low.

Talking to them has taught me to value our comforts. Many of these people are in
this position not through their own fault, although there are some who choose to live
like this, she added.

Mohd Nong Shah, 40, has been living on the streets of Kuala Lumpur for more than
15 years.

Originally from Kuala Terengganu, Mohd Nong, who also goes by the name Mansor,
ran away from home when he was in his late teens.

I have never seen or spoken to my parents since and I have only met one sister all
these while.

People like me have no plans and no purpose in life. We just drift from place to
place and find a little money to stay afloat, said Mansor.

A former drug addict, he said he had unresolved problems making him reluctant to
return home.

I hope to go home some day, he said but until then he is content to remain on the
streets collecting recyclable items and doing odd jobs for money.

Mansor said although life on the street was uncertain, he had no qualms remaining
here and found comfort coming to the AOHD.

This is one of my favourite places to visit. The people here are understanding and
kind, and the food is not bad, he said after a heavy lunch.

AOHD feeding programme coordinator Carl DCunha oversees the distribution of

lunches to more than 100 people.
The centre has been operating for 12 years and gives out hot lunches from Monday
to Friday at its premises in Bukit Nanas, opposite SK St John.

Among the homeless people who come to have lunch are many senior citizens.

The crowd is made up of elderly people as well as youngsters and we do not deny
food to anyone.

We also try to help those who want to get off the streets, said DCunha.

We try to get the younger ones to go back to their families. We tell them they have a
future and they cannot be doing this all their life, he added.

DCunha also works closely with other NGOs such as KSK, Street Fellowship and
Grace Centre to help the youths get jobs.

The common goal shared by many of the NGOs is to take the homeless off the
streets and find proper jobs for them so that they do not go back to the streets.

Reach Org founder and director Peter Nicoll said by giving them jobs, the homeless
could be reintegrated into society.
They just need a chance, said Nicoll when met during one of his rounds.

However, one homeless man named Nelson said the NGOs should stop giving out
free food.

There are many youngsters among us who do not want to find jobs.

They do not care because they are already fed.

If we stop feeding them, they will rise up and make an effort to find jobs, he said.
-Stories by Joshua Foong and Shaun Ho

FROM: http://www.thestar.com.my/Travel/Malaysia/2010/07/19/Homeless-in-KL/