Residents housed under a scheme for the elderly have been asked to move out to make way for civil servants.
The Social Welfare Department, which owns the flats bought by the so-called Gold Coin housing scheme launched in 1983, said the scheme was outdated and too costly to maintain.
Social workers attacked the department for phasing out the scheme without making a public announcement. The South China Morning Post learned of the plan through welfare sources.
There are 66 elderly tenants in the remaining 31 Gold Coin flats in Wan Chai and Sha Tin. Some 103 flats were originally purchased under the scheme - launched by the then governor, Sir Edward Youde, in 1983 - but 72 have recently been returned to the Government Property Agency.
Most have been taken up by rank and file employees from the Customs, Correctional Services and Fire Services departments.
Those recovered between now and 2004 will also be allocated to civil servants. No more elderly residents have been allocated to the flats and, recently, the department decided to recover all the flats by 2004. The department said those who remained after 2004 would not be forced out.
Assistant Director of Social Welfare Eliza Leung Wong Kwok-shing said each flat was worth about $2 million. 'This is taxpayers' money and they are too expensive to sustain [as elderly housing].
