Temporary housing area demolition delays attacked
Legislators have claimed the Housing Department is endangering temporary housing residents by delaying the demolition of old flats.
At a forum on Temporary Housing Area policy yesterday, legislators criticised the department for delaying housing transfers.
Yesterday legislator and Housing Authority member, Frederick Fung Kin-kee, visited the Kai Lok area in Kowloon Bay, which houses more than 1,000 families.
He said the Government had made a mistake over temporary housing, and Kai Lok had been around for 13 years instead of the intended seven years.
The Government originally promised to level all temporary housing areas before July 1997, but it gave a stay of execution to 13 sites last year.
Mr Fung said transfers were also being delayed because the public housing offered temporary residents was often undesirable.
Residents at Kai Lok have been constantly disturbed by dripping water, white ants and generally poor living conditions.
'I was all wet last Thursday night when the heavy rain washed down on my bed,' said one resident, Lee Chan Chan-yung.
'We couldn't sleep for a few nights because we were too busy emptying buckets of water.
'The house is too old to be repaired. While you're fixing one part, another part is already falling down.' Renovation work also plagued residents. At Fat Tseung temporary housing area in Cheung Sha Wan, for example, such repairs created noise disturbances and hygiene problems.
'When the workers pulled off the wooden planks, white ants and cockroaches began to move into my flat. And the insecticides they sprayed affect us as well,' said resident Chan Chi-kwong Mr Fung promised to arrange a meeting between temporary housing area residents and Housing Department officials to discuss the problems.
