Hong Kong’s abused wives seeking safe house accuse Welfare Department of ignoring them

Victims of domestic violence seeking temporary public housing have accused the Social Welfare Department of turning a cold shoulder to their applications.

The Ombudsman, the city’s watchdog for handling complaints against government agencies, was understood to have received a case filed by four women claiming they suffered mental breakdowns as a result of the department’s inaction in their fight for emergency accommodation.

The number of successful applications for conditional tenancies under a compassionate housing scheme aimed at helping individuals with imminent housing needs had shrunk by almost a half to fewer than 200 over the last five years, according to official figures.

“It has made us very worried as their former spouses may take the chance to abuse them again as long as they don’t have a safe and decent place to get settled at,” said lawmaker Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, adding that the criteria set by the government were too demanding and opaque for many applicants with urgent housing needs.

Cheung believed that some department staff handling applications may have failed to comply with official guidelines. “There appears to be an inconsistency and irregularity as cases with almost the same characteristics would yield completely different outcomes,” he said.

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The scheme was extended in 2001 to cover victims of domestic violence who have petitioned for divorce and who have no offspring or dependent children when leaving the matrimonial home.