LCSD finally apologizes to evicted street sleepers after more than two years

Officers from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department apologized for the first time on Tuesday after staffers and police threw away several street sleepers' belongings in an operation in Sham Shui Po in 2019.  

Street sleepers living at Tung Chau Street Park in Sham Shui Po lost clothes, mattresses, food, two-way permits, and cash during a police eviction two years ago. 

Society for Community Organization met with representatives of the LCSD on Tuesday when the officers apologized to the affected homeless for the first time.  

Chief Leisure Manager David Kwan Chung-wai said the operation in 2019 caused material loss to street sleepers', which is not ideal.  

He said the department will put up notice 14 days ahead of future cleanings and inform the homeless again one day before.  

He added that the department will take photos of any seized belongings and wrap them in black plastic bags. It will also put up another notice after the operation to inform the homeless that they can retrieve their personal belongings within three days.  

SoCO said the apology after more than two years was late but met the requests of the homeless after all.  

The operation in question took place on December 21, 2019, at Tung Chau Street Park, where the nine usually stayed. Staffers from the department and anti-riot cops ordered the street sleepers – most of them were not present at that time – to clear off all their belongings in three minutes without prior notice. 

Staffers then removed street sleepers' belongings and put everything into 12 trolleys near a squash court. They also threw away any items not retrieved by them three days later.   

The street sleepers, with help from the Society for Community Organization (SoCO), then sued the government and requested compensation ranging between HK$2,000 and HK$13,290. Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah was listed as the defendant in this case.   

The department was ordered by a tribunal later to compensate nine street sleepers with a symbolic amount of HK$100 each.