Hong Kong’s fourth wave: crumbling Yau Tsim Mong’s overdue repairs more urgent than ever in pandemic

Densely populated with old, subdivided flats in poor repair, the Kowloon district has, unsurprisingly, become a centre of Covid-19 contagion
Immediate action is needed to tackle the dilapidated housing and poor living conditions

Bernard Chan

Published: 6:45am, 29 Jan 2021

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The recent Covid-19 cluster in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei has put a spotlight again on the poor housing and environmental conditions in Yau Tsim Mong district. Over the weekend, several blocks in Jordan were cordoned off for emergency mass virus testing.

Thirteen hidden cases were discovered and isolated. Disrupting people’s lives and livelihoods is not the optimal way to manage a pandemic. However, it is also true that we are in an emergency and trying to put out a fire as rapidly as possible.

Yau Tsim Mong has the most Covid-19 cases of any district in Hong Kong. The neighbourhood happens to be home to many ethnic minorities, and it gives me no pleasure to note that some people in Hong Kong have responded with prejudice against district residents, instead of outrage over the poor living conditions.

This behaviour needs to be addressed, and I was happy to see local companies unhesitatingly stand for their ethnic minority workers.

Anyone familiar with this part of Kowloon will hardly be surprised that it has emerged as a centre of contagion in this pandemic. Yau Tsim Mong is the second most densely populated area in Hong Kong. Many buildings contain illegally subdivided flats, and a recent Urban Renewal Authority study of Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok found 90 per cent of the buildings over 30 years old, with the average building age of 52 years.

These buildings were constructed during Hong Kong’s population surge in the 1960s and 1970s, and were not of very high quality to begin with. As we have seen with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and now Covid-19, a virus can spread through sewage and drainage pipes, especially when illegal repairs or those that don’t conform with building codes have been made through the years by landlords.

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When these drainage-related, virus-spreading problems are discovered in public housing, the Housing Authority or Housing Society can move quickly and fix them. But the old housing in Yau Tsim Mong is not government-managed – it is a patchwork of privately owned buildings, making any fixes much more complex.

Clearly, the entire area is in dire need of an upgrade. This was obvious even before the pandemic. Indeed, it was only in November that eight people died in a fire that raged through a Yau Ma Tei building, Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in nearly a decade.

Speaking at a press conference over the weekend, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said the district was densely populated, and some residents were living in poor conditions.

Urban renewal can improve the district’s living conditions. And super-scale infrastructure proposals, such as the Lantau Tomorrow Vision, aim to create new land so older districts such as Yau Tsim Mong can be thoroughly upgraded with new buildings and infrastructure.

But that project, if approved, will take decades. Even an urban renewal plan for the area will take years to complete. In the meantime, we have a critical situation that is becoming even more so as the pandemic continues.

02:36

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The government, NGOs and the private sector need to start thinking and working together to find things we can do immediately to repair the area’s crumbling housing and improve the living conditions.

Since 2009, the Hong Kong government has recognised the need for such policy programmes, and created schemes such as Operation Building Bright and the Integrated Building Maintenance Assistance Scheme to provide subsidies for landlords and owners’ associations to improve and upgrade building infrastructure.

The drawback is that the programmes typically have complicated requirements, and a limited range of projects qualify for support. Perhaps these programmes could be expanded to include buildings over 30 years old, rather than over 40. And the list of approved improvements should be expanded to prioritise building ventilation and sewage drainage inspection and upgrades, just as window replacements were prioritised in earlier programmes.

It is tempting to look for big-picture solutions to complex urban planning issues. It is always easier to tear down and start over. But, right now, Yau Tsim Mong is an overcrowded district with inadequate housing in the middle of a pandemic, and it does not have the luxury of time. It is urgent that we look for targeted small solutions to alleviate the district’s housing crisis as much as possible now.

Bernard Chan is convenor of Hong Kong’s Executive Council