Hong Kong homeless numbers rise, but resources not enough to cope with problem, Audit Commission warns

Fewer than 40 per cent of registered Hong Kong street sleepers received support from government-subsidised groups in the past year, as homeless numbers more than doubled in the last decade, the government auditor has found.

An Audit Commission report on Wednesday appealed for better services and more money for hostel accommodation for the homeless to help cope with the surge, which has been worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Audit officials also asked the Social Welfare Department to look at ways to better estimate the number of street sleepers who were not registered.

Social workers and academics said not enough resources had been devoted to tracing street sleepers under policies they insisted were unfriendly to people on the verge of homelessness.

They also criticised a long-term underestimation of the numbers sleeping rough by the government, which significantly hampered efforts to tackle the problem.

The latest report to scrutinise social services for street sleepers highlighted that the city had a larger, older population of homeless people, who were harder to keep track of.