Gainfully employed but still down and out

It’s 4 o’clock in the morning, and the streets of Kuala Lumpur are mostly still. But like any major metropolis around the world, the country’s capital city never truly sleeps.

In the distance, along Jalan Tun Abdul Razak and Jalan Belia, a line of people slowly grows.

They are the city’s homeless who have come to receive charity care packs ahead of Hari Raya Aidilfitri next week.

Among them is Fuad who, at 53, looks like any other person on the street. Like any other person, he also holds down a job.

But the monthly salary he gets working as an assistant at a farmers’ market is not enough to keep a roof over his head.

Each morning, he wakes up and gets dressed in the clothes he spread out to dry on the five-foot way beside him the night before.

He warms up the engine of his rickety old motorcycle and then sets off for work.

Fuad is one of thousands who live on the streets because they do not earn enough to live anywhere else.

He makes about RM900 a month, but in the capital city, this is barely enough to feed him let alone cover the rent for even a small room.

For two years, he has gone to work and come back to a piece of cardboard spread on the ground in an alley. As the cost of living increases while his salary remains unchanged, his situation is unlikely to improve.

As of 2021, Kuala Lumpur had the highest number of homeless people in the country, followed by Johor and Sarawak.

Many of them are doing their best to change their circumstances, but cannot due to economic and financial constraints. Even those who hold down jobs often do not earn enough to escape their life of poverty.

Fuad’s monthly income, for example, is far below the RM2,208 poverty line income limit for households, or even the RM1,169 limit for the hardcore poor.

The situation was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the number of homeless in urban areas spike by 20 to 30% compared to 5 to 7% in rural locations.

Hisham, another homeless man, collapses on his cardboard bed each night after more than 12 hours of work at a restaurant in the city centre.

He used to earn RM2,500 a month at a similar job in Melaka, enough to rent a room in a small flat which he shared with a colleague.

But the onset of the pandemic saw many workers laid off amid conflict at the management level.

Eventually, Hisham ended up in Kuala Lumpur where he hoped to find work as a cook. But the best he could find was a job as a kitchen assistant earning RM700 to RM900 a month.

Deductions are made each time he is late to work. This happens occasionally as he needs to find a place where he can shower and change his clothes.

For the past two years, he has stayed in the Jalan Pudu area. He keeps his few possessions in a bag that he carries with him – one or two sets of clothes, a blanket and a towel.

Sometimes, he longs to remember what it feels like to sit in a real room again. Once in a while, he gives in and forks out some of his hard-earned money to rent a budget hotel room for RM70 a night.

“The feeling of being able to shower for as long as I want to, to sit and rest – that’s all I want,” he said.

‘Swindled’

Room rental in the city centre, Pudu and Setapak starts at about RM300 with downpayments of RM1,000 or so.

In other areas such as Cheras, Kepong and Ampang, rent is lower – it is possible to share a room for RM150 per person.

But not many homeless people have access to the gadgets needed to check and compare prices online.

Subletting is also a problem, where landlords who themselves rent the premises from someone else advertise the space for a tidy profit.

Eventually, savings are used up for advances and those who can no longer afford the rent are evicted. Left to fend for themselves, many end up involved in crime.

Ayie has been homeless since he was 14 years old. Now 29, he has already done time in jail for possession of drugs.

After completing his five-year prison sentence, he returned to living on the streets. But this time around, he has a job which pays him RM800 a month.

“I can find a room, but if I pay for rent, I can’t afford a motorcycle and it’s hard for me to get to work,” he said.

“I think it’s better to just sleep on the streets with my friends and buy a motorcycle so I can move around and do odd jobs like delivering food.”