Transitional housing for Hong Kong’s poor not just a job for charities and developers, human rights groups says, urging more government involvement
- Move from subdivided flats to transitional housing generally welcomed by tenants but worries about length of lease remain, researchers find
- Society for Community Organisation calls on government to take a more active role as a provider of transitional homes
Hong Kong officials must shoulder more responsibility in building transitional homes for the poor, rather than leaving the task to developers and non-profit groups, a human rights organisation says.
The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), which provides about 80 transitional flats in Sai Wan, Sham Shui Po and Tai Kok Tsui, published a report on Thursday with the findings that residents in such homes were generally satisfied despite some limitations.
SoCO researchers examined eight cases, speaking with four families that had recently moved into transitional housing and four others surviving in subdivided flats under dismal living conditions, to understand their experiences and expectations.
Poor families that had moved from subdivided flats to transitional homes said their living conditions had largely improved, but some were worried about security of tenure as most leases were signed on a short-term basis.
Single mother Ng Siu-dan, 41, who lives with her sister and their four young children, moved from a 100 sq ft subdivided flat to SoCO’s transitional housing in Tai Kok Tsui last October.