Outcry from Losheng

Hung De-Jen

Board Member of Community Empowering Society Taiwan

“’East or west, home is best.’ This is the real voice of the residents.”


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The Losheng residents say...

Decades ago, the residents of Losheng were sent to the sanatorium and isolated for the welfare of the public. They quietly accepted their fate. Today, they are forced to move for the public good again as their place has been designated for a metro terminal.

This time some residents chose to stand up and speak for themselves.

Why not move?

There are around three hundred residents in Losheng at present and the average age of them is seventy five. The majority chose to leave the brick building where they’ve lived for decades and moved to a new facility built to house them. Yet a group of 40 rejected this. “Moving itself is exhausting, not to mention for us disabled. I have lived here for 51 years. How long will it take to adjust to a new environment?” said resident Chen Zai-Tien, 71. In fact, many studies have showed that moving for the aged might cause both physical and mental problems. The Losheng management respects the residents’ choice and said they have never forced them to move.

The majority of the residents now live in the new building.

The residents who chose to stay accuse the management of unfair treatment. They complain that the director of Losheng shifted most resources to the new building, which meant that the living conditions of their current accommodation are poor. They also argued that the management promised to build bungalows to house them and yet it turned out to be an eight-storey building. As leprosy attacked external nerve endings, most residents now have to rely on scooters. They claimed it’s hard to move around on a scooter inside the tall building. These people are angry at insufficient communication about many of the changes.

The director of Losheng Huang Jung-De explained that the form of the building had been decided before he came on board. In a latest report of the resident care situation, it says that the medical service remains in the old place despite very low use rates. Father Luis Gutheinz,S.J., who has looked after the residents for over thirty years, also explained that many meetings were held in order to understand the residents’ expectations. “It would be a false accusation if the residents said they were not well informed,” he said.

Actually, most residents who have moved to the new building are quite satisfied and appreciate what the director has done for them. Mr Huang said that he has tried to keep a low profile to avoid more disputes. He also feels sorry for the tension between the residents on both sides. “My next step is to rescue their friendship. It’s a shame to see them treating each other like an enemy at present.” As for some residents’ objection to the metro terminal plan, “We are under the jurisdiction of the government so we don’t get involved with the protest,” he said.

The video below has the explanation from the residents and the Losheng management.

Dur: 2:04