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.
Law said funding would need to be agreed by the Legislative Council, but that approval would take time.
In the meantime, he said officials would not rule out money from the Community Care Fund to “continue to support building some kind of transitional housing if necessary for a period of time”.
The fund was set up in 2011 to help people who fall outside the welfare net.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who also addressed the summit, said alleviating poverty was a long-term task and officials would encourage cooperation among businesses, government and community.
“This kind of summit is not a show for publicity. It’s a platform to listen to views for doing real work,” she said.
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According to the Hong Kong Poverty Situation report for 2017, more than 1.37 million people in Hong Kong are living below the poverty line, 25,000 more than the figure in 2016.
The poverty line is set at 50 per cent of median monthly household income before taxation and the government’s policy intervention, which includes social welfare payments, such as allowances for the elderly and low-income families.
In real terms that means a single person with a monthly income of HK$4,000, a two-person household earning HK$9,800, while the threshold for a three-person household is HK$15,000.
The poverty rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 20.1 per cent, which is the highest since 2010. But, after taking the government’s cash handouts into account, the poverty rate fell to 14.7 per cent, or 1.01 million, a rate similar to the previous year.
Law said poverty alleviation was not just about giving out money, other measures were also needed to improve the quality of life of lower income families and singles.
The summit was also attended by non-government organisations which shared their ideas on poverty alleviation.
Law said he noted officials had been questioned for not taking over social projects initiated by non-official bodies to make the support for poorer people more sustainable, he suggested the organisations approach the government at an earlier stage to facilitate cooperation.
Before the summit began, members of the Society for Community Organisation and some residents presented a petition, demanding greater efforts to alleviate poverty.
They said the government still lacked comprehensive policies over the issue, and called for a review while also urging officials to lead the commerce sector in helping the needy, by providing family-friendly policies and supporting the employment of women.
