Officials may use Community Care Fund to plug HK$2 billion gap in resources for transitional housing as legislation faces government backlog
- Welfare chief Law Chi-kwong floats idea at the Commission on Poverty Summit
- Money has been set aside in budget but lawmakers have yet to begin process of approving it in Legislative Council
Officials are considering using money from a public-private trust fund to speed up the construction of transitional housing for needy families, Hong Kong’s welfare chief said on Saturday.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong floated the idea at the annual Commission on Poverty Summit, as a means of circumventing the wait for lawmakers to approve the HK$2 billion earmarked for the works
At present, there are more than 1.37 million people living below the poverty line in the city.
To help ease some of the financial burden on the city’s less fortunate residents, officials are planning to build prefabricated housing to provide temporary homes for them.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po set aside HK$2 billion to support non-governmental organisations to build transitional housing in this year’s budget.
