Factory dwellers appeal for inclusion in Community Care Fund subsidy
Care fund chiefs hear plea for help, while others seek shorter wait for public flats and property agents protest at downturn
Despite measures to cool the property market and help poor people since last July, housing remains a severe social problem for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's administration.
Two groups of inadequately housed people appealed for help yesterday.
Families living in illegally subdivided industrial buildings or on factory roofs said they are being denied a Community Care Fund (CCF) subsidy given to people living in subdivided flats in residential buildings.
They appealed to members of the fund's task force for help, saying they could not afford legal housing.
In a 70 square foot home on the roof of a Kwun Tong industrial building, Fung Kit-hin, 57, poured out his woes to CCF task force members Michael Tien Puk-sun and Peter Cheung Kwok-che.
The part-time porter - who lives with his wife and daughter, eight - hopes to receive a one-off HK$8,000 CCF subsidy for inadequately housed low-income families even though his home is illegal. "It would ease our financial pressure. I just hope for compassion," he said.
Fung said his income was unstable and the subsidy would cover about three months' rent. In the long run, he hoped for government measures to help his family move to a better place.