Top Biz News

Homeless shelter overwhelmed

By Meng Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-29 07:54

Two vagrants take a nap at a relief center in Dongcheng district. [China Daily]

Beijing's largest relief center, or homeless shelter, is worrying that the current freezing weather, as well as the coming Spring Festival, will further strain its resources.

Fan Jianbing, vice-director of the Chaoyang relief center believed the cold weather and the coming of spring festival will result in an increased number of people turning to relief centers for help.

"We only have 67 employees in all which are responsible for the whole Chaoyang district.

"We work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. We are definitely short of hands," Fan explained. The center is offering help to 80 homeless people.

According to Fan, a 21-year-old homeless young man has stayed in the center for Spring Festival four years in a row since 2006 and has already been in the center for a week.

"We never turn people away when they need help although we shouldn't receive the same person repeatedly," Fan said.

Money is Fan's biggest concern. His center has spent 1.4 million yuan on the medical care of homeless people this year.

"Last week, we received a homeless man who burnt himself when he built a fire in his handmade camp to keep warm," Chen Xi, an employee of the center, said.

"We spent 40,000 yuan to save him and we also paid for his skin grafts," he said.

Chen, 26, has worked for the Chaoyang relief center for five years. He said he was working under pressure all the time, not only because he needs to work long hours but also because most people he deals with suffer from some kind of health or psychological problems.

Wang Yanchang, who has worked at the administration department of Chaoyang relief center, echoed Chen's complaint. "One of our employees has stayed in hospital for two months after he broke his leg when trying to calm down a mentally disabled man," Wang said.

Wang said it's very difficult for the center to hire people due to the low wages and dangerous conditions.

"We offer 1,388 yuan per month. We can hardly find some professionals to work for us. About 50 percent of our employees are junior high school graduates," he said.

Beijing has 20 relief centers that recently finished a three-day patrol aiming to help homeless people struggling with the cold.