‘A flat alone is not enough’: Hong Kong social enterprise Light Be aims to unlock potential in tenants enduring long wait for public housing
- The social enterprise provides scores of families somewhere to live, while also teaching life skills and opening the door to vocational training
- The group is one of many tapping into a HK$5 billion government pool aimed at providing temporary housing for those awaiting subsidised flats
Cheung and her husband were more than HK$100,000 in debt when they first settled into a transitional home run by a social enterprise. Three years later, they have saved double that amount, repaid the debt and are now earning enough to rent a new place.
“In the three years there, [my husband] made fewer impulsive purchases, became more responsible to the family and learned how to save money. Now we’re able to rent a two-bedroom flat while we wait for public housing. It’s good for our children,” said Cheung, 28, who declined to give her full name.
The mother of three is a graduate tenant of Light Housing, a block converted from what was once staff quarters at a textile factory in Sham Tseng and run by the group Light Be.
Like some 80 other families social workers have referred to the transitional housing site over the past four years, the Cheungs were supervised by a “coach” who would come to collect rent every month and check their progress on personal development goals they had pledged to achieve in their rental contract.
But while the government is providing charities with money and land to deliver transitional housing for low-income residents awaiting public housing, providers such as Light Be say employment support, community networks and savings plans can be just as important in helping them escape poverty.