Six people found shelter at IAS winter facility, two are HK residents

A total of six people have found shelter, so far, at the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) Winter Shelter, IAS said in response to a Times inquiry.

According to the bureau, the six people who have used the shelter since the opening of the facility (last Saturday) were two residents of Hong Kong and four residents of Macau.

The venue that operates at the “Vui Ieng Service Centre” of the Macao Caritas, at Ilha Verde, is open temporarily and available overnight from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day while very cold temperatures persist, IAS noted.  The opening of the venue for this purpose is prompted by the issuing of the “yellow” warning for low temperature by the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG).

The IAS further said in the reply to the Times that the six people who resorted to the shelter were all males aged between 40 and 80 years old.

Besides accommodation services for those in need, the facility also provides meals and showers, IAS said.

It is not clear in the response issued by the IAS if the people seeking help have used the services on other occasions, or if this is their first time using the shelter. The IAS also did not clarify the main reasons for these people seeking help at the shelter or what kind of other services they might be seeking. It is also unclear as to whether these people are homeless or temporarily unhoused, or people with homes but who are living in poor conditions.

The yellow warning of low temperatures was effective during the weekend (December 16 and 17) recording a minimum of 9.1°C for the early hours of Sunday.

According to the SMG forecast, temperatures will rise slightly over the upcoming days dropping again to around 9°C from December 23 (Saturday) with the humidity levels (generally high in Macau) also dropping to as low as 30% around Sunday (December 24).