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Home loans policy cramps single father

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DESERTED husband Vincent Li Ying-cherk has slammed Housing Society bureaucrats for wrapping his marital woes in red tape thus denying him and his daughter a home.

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The 36-year-old physiotherapist has accused the society of discriminating against him as a single parent with a divorce in the pipeline.

The case highlights Housing Society policy which appears to unfairly prevent estranged husbands and wives from buying a home with the help of the sandwich-class housing scheme, legislator Martin Lee Chu-ming said yesterday.

Mr Li, who now shares a bunk-bed with his elderly mother in a cramped Kennedy Town flat, said: 'It is against the law of human rights to be prejudiced against someone like this, whether they are separated or not.

'My wife and I can prove that we have nothing to do with each other any more as we have been legally separated for almost two years. But I have been refused Housing Society help because we do not have a divorce certificate.

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'Single parents are often the ones who need help most because, in my case, I now have a three-year-old daughter I am solely supporting.' Mr Li said that during interviews with Housing Society officers, he was told he could not be considered for a sandwich-class loan because he did not have a divorce certificate.

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