Letters | How to help Hong Kong families in temporary housing feel more at home

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the average waiting time for public housing has risen to 5.8 years. This is the longest such period in two decades, with nearly 155,000 applicants on the waiting list.

In her 2020 policy address, Mrs Carrie Lam committed HK$5 billion (US$644 million) to provide temporary housing for low-income families living in subdivided flats through building modular housing and converting idle buildings into community housing. For this policy to benefit more people, the government should consolidate the application processes and extend the rental periods for transitional housing. Larger temporary flats should also be built and offered to households with more than three members.

While the Hong Kong Council of Social Service is responsible for coordinating community housing projects, families have to apply for the temporary flats directly to one of several service operators. Since it is difficult for applicants to choose the service operators, the council should centralise the application process and handle applications on behalf of the different operators.

Only those on the public housing waiting list for more than three years are eligible for transitional housing, so the council and the Housing Authority should work together to integrate the two application systems to streamline the administrative processes.

At present, tenants in transitional housing can only stay in the flats for two to three years, but there is no guarantee public housing will be available when they have to move out. The Council of Social Service should allow these families to stay in transitional housing units longer, so they do not have to move back into subdivided flats.