New venture, Light Be, helps needy find a room of their own - for cheap

A new social venture has come up with an innovative solution to address the housing needs of the city's underprivileged - by meeting them with private resources.

Recently-formed Light Be (Social Realty) Limited has started a "light rooms" project, which aims to provide single-parent families with a home in which they do not have to worry about being kicked out by landlords when they cannot afford the rent or when the property is resumed at short notice for redevelopment.

The light rooms social venture, which is named from the hope that it will work like the process of photosynthesis in which light drives life, will manage at least three rooms, to be rented out to families at an affordable rate or below market prices for up to three years.

The first three rooms is a 500-plus square foot three-bedroom flat in Kwun Tong, where three families have moved in for five months at half the market rental.

Two more light rooms on Hong Kong Island are being renovated for the same purpose.

The venture welcomes property owners to join its course, but the properties must not be subdivided flats and must able to provide up to 75 square feet of floor space per individual.

"Apart from financial gains, property owners could also look for social returns," said Ricky Yu Wai-yip, Light Be's founder and chief executive officer, adding that the thrust of the venture was the belief that a property could become something beyond a monetary investment tool.