With an advertising sign in his hands, Liao Chin-chang stands wearily at an intersection near a new luxury apartment building in Taipei, trying to earn money as a walking billboard for the type of property most Taiwanese could never afford.
The sight of homeless people holding placards for elite properties at street corners is becoming increasingly common in Taiwan’s capital, providing a harsh illustration of the island’s gap between the haves and have nots.
The 51-year-old former taxi driver, who became homeless a decade ago, is among the growing number of victims of a struggling economy, many of whom have been forced out of their homes after losing their jobs.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
While the luxury apartment Liao advertises is expected to sell for more than NT$100 million (US$3.33 million), property prices in general are beyond reach for many regular salary-earners with an average monthly income of less than NT$40,000.
For people like Liao, even renting a room is out of the question.
“I can’t even afford to pay the rent since I lost my job 10 years ago. I’ve only saved NT$4,000 from doing odd jobs all these years, which is not enough to rent a small room for one month,” Liao said.
In recent years, the gap between the rich and poor has widened rapidly, reaching a record level in 2011 as the wealthiest families earned 96 times more than the poorest.
It has coincided with a slowing economy, partly driven by the relocation of manufacturing industries to cheaper foreign countries, such as China and Vietnam, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of blue collar jobs.
This has been compounded by limited retraining opportunities and a low minimum wage of less than NT$20,000 per month, said Lin Wan-i (林萬億), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Social Work.
Meanwhile, low taxes have benefited the wealthy, while limiting the amount of revenue available for the government to spend on social security, Lin said.
Social workers say the chances of Taiwan’s homeless getting back on their feet are slim, given the competition for long-hour, low-paying temporary jobs.
“People are fighting for every job opportunity during the economic downturn,” Zenan Homeless Social Welfare Foundation public relations director Li Ting-ting (李婷婷) said. “There is competition with young people or housewives even for a temporary placard-holding job.”
The bottom 5 percent of families reported an average annual income of NT$48,000, compared with NT$4.63 million earned by the top 5 percent in 2011, based on income tax filings.
Taiwan has made efforts to address wealth inequality, while initiating plans to rein in soaring property prices and hike taxes for the wealthy, which has helped narrow the gap between rich and poor since the 2011 record.
However, the plight of the underclass is becoming an increasingly frequent theme in the media, including the recent story of an eight-year-old living in a graveyard with her cash-strapped parents for more than a year after they were evicted by their landlord. Social workers eventually intervened, but the girl and her Vietnamese mother were later deported.
Observers have cited the wealth gap as a factor driving recent anti-government protests that occupied the parliament’s main chamber earlier this year.
Taiwan has moved to levy a so-called “rich man’s tax” on nearly 10,000 of the nation’s wealthiest people in a bid to narrow the income gap and ease growing public anger. The proposal passed an initial screening in parliament earlier this month.
However, Lin warned that income disparity will widen further.
“The gap will continue as the next generations inherit wealth, while the poor have little chance to turn their situations around, with less money for their children,” Lin said.
The private Grace Home Church currently runs 27 centers across Taiwan serving two free meals a day six days a week to up to 2,000 homeless and disadvantaged people daily, Pastor David Lee (李大衛) said.
“There are more and more people coming to our centers these days. We hope they can have enough to eat and some peace of mind here before they can think of the next step in their lives,” Lee said.
A decade ago, the church ran one facility serving just 80 people and it now plans to open more than 30 new centers to meet growing demand, Lee said.
Huang Ding-hsin, a 65-year-old estranged from his family, is a newcomer to the streets in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), where hundreds of homeless people gather. He lost his job due to an eye aliment several months ago.
“I can only get by each day at a time and do any work I can find while I still have strength,” he said.
“I buy lottery tickets with the little money I make as it’s my only hope to ever have a roof over my head again,” Huang added, lining up with 60 other people for free boxed meals given out by a charity.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and