Research on the Current Conditions and Policy of Homeless Services in Kaohsiung City: A Social Exclusion Perspective

• Main Authors: Shou, Weihung, 壽偉宏
• Other Authors: Tung, Chuanchuan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/58359350525555369932

碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 公共行政與政策學系 === 101 === The "homeless" is a significant but often overlooked social underclass. In the early days, the homeless are considered as deviants that threatened the society. They are often outlawed and half –imprisoned. It was not until the late 1980s that human rights issues of homelessness had gotten more attention. The government started to offer some social welfare to help the homeless. The society also thought about how to give them support. This study used qualitative research methods and employed “documentary analysis” to review the current homeless literature in Taiwan and found that past research rarely focused on homeless people in Kaohsiung City. Further, there was little research offering multi-dimensional analysis for the homeless issues from the social exclusion perspective. This research thus adopted the social exclusion theory to examine the homeless issue in Kaohsiung City. Through in-depth interviews, the author analyzed the conversation content with relevant actors that included the homeless, social workers, community residents and government officials who took charge of Kaohsiung homeless services system. Therefore, this study had a better understanding of the economic, culture, political, spatial, and policy aspects of social exclusion phenomena of the homeless. The study found that there are many problems in the Kaohsiung homeless services system. These occurred in the processes of the service supply and demand. The homeless faced not only the multiple excluding predicament but also the various interaction and accumulative relationships among the excluding factors. The current homeless policies failed to respond to the excluding effects, especially the homeless psychological problems. This will exacerbate the phenomenon and the policy effects will be greatly reduced. The study suggests that the city government should strengthen coordination or integration between the service providers, make efficient use of resources and actively encourage community residents and homeless people to get involved in service work to alleviate discrimination. In addition, the city government should try new ways to reconsider urban space arrangement and homeless employment policies.