Residents of Daguan Community in New Taipei say the Tsai administration has not helped them in their fight against forced eviction.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/03/07
By: Brian Hioe

Clashes broke out between residents of the Daguan Community and police in front of the Executive Yuan on Wednesday morning. Daguan Community is a military dependents’ village in New Taipei City, whose residents have been facing the threat of eviction for several years. However, most recently, Daguan residents received a notice on Mar. 4 that their homes will be forcibly dismantled on Mar. 18, hence the demonstration in front of the Executive Yuan this morning.

Student activists who have been working with Daguan residents and the residents themselves originally called for a press conference in front of the Executive Yuan at 10 a.m. this morning. In speeches, students and Daguan residents criticized the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration for promising a peaceful settlement that would address residents’ needs.

In particular, many residents of Daguan are elderly, impoverished, and would have no place to go if they are evicted from their homes. Some have been living in Daguan for over 40 or 50 years. As such, the threat of eviction is viewed by some as something of a death sentence, as even for those with places to go, residents would be unable to accommodate the dramatic shift in lifestyle if resettled.

Indeed, a number of residents have occupational injuries or suffer from long-term diseases. Some dismiss protests by residents of military dependents’ villages as frivolous, seeing as military dependents’ villages are usually run-down and residents are given comparatively higher-quality and more expensive housing in return. But among the residents of Daguan Community are individuals old enough and infirm enough that they are actually unable to use elevators and would be unable to use them in a high-rise housing complex in order to get to their homes if, like other evicted military dependents’ villages, that is where they are placed.    [FULL  STORY]