Community Care Fund offers cash assistance to poor for housing
One-off payment aims to help the city's neediest people with high housing costs
More than 200,000 underprivileged people can expect to benefit early next year from a one-off subsidy of up to HK$10,000 from the Community Care Fund to assist with housing costs.
The fund's chairman, Law Chi-kwong, hopes to identify a specific group of low-income people who do not receive CSSA and do not live in public rental housing.
The fund plans to include homeless people and the estimated 5,000 people living in subdivided homes in illegally converted factory buildings in the scheme.
Law said he did not believe the proposed housing subsidy would necessarily lead to landlords increasing rents.
"Rents are determined by many factors that cannot be controlled by [the fund]," he said. "I hope the project won't affect rents too much and [that landlords will] take care of low-income tenants living in hardship."
People who wish to apply for the subsidy have to meet several criteria. They must be living in private accommodation, industrial or commercial buildings, or renting bed spaces. Homeless people and members of ethnic minorities who meet the criteria can also apply.