The strange appearance of "invisible flats" in old public housing estates has not been allocated to a team: 687 units in Hong Kong are estimated

There is a long queue for public housing applications. The Housing Department recently announced that the waiting time for public housing for general applicants has been extended to 5.8 years. The "invisible flats" allocated by the government are estimated to have at least 687 similar flats in Hong Kong. There are also hundreds of square feet of space and storage rooms that have been left empty for a long time. Some district councillors urge the Housing Department to consider Relevant units will be provided to residents of Shili transit housing who will be forced to relocate at the end of next year, as well as the housing needs of the victims in a sudden disaster.

A total of 190,000 public housing units in Hong Kong have been left empty for more than a year

The Kwai Chung Rooftop Platform Housing Alliance and the Shek Lei Transit Housing Concern Group held a sharing session on the results of long-term vacant flats in the old public village on Sunday (28th). A number of members were dispatched to inspect Kwai Shing West Village and Lai Yao several times in October. There are a total of 14 buildings in the village over 44 years old. Through external vacancy characteristics, checking the beating of water meters, etc., confirm whether there are long-term vacant units to understand whether there is any housing space in the village that can be used. The results were released on the same day. In-depth discussion in the neighborhood.

The investigation found that through field inspections, the members found 47 and 81 flats in Lai Yao Village and Kwai Shing West Village, which were confirmed to be 100% vacant or had a high chance of being vacant, after deducting the allocation by the Housing Department for general housing supply and express express After the use of the units in the public housing allocation plan, it was discovered that there were 10 and 16 "invisible units" that were not included in the official list, and the Housing Department was questioned for "reporting the details."

If the number of invisible units is divided by the overall supply of units in the village as a percentage, the percentages of the two villages are then taken as an average to calculate that out of the 191,065 public housing units in Hong Kong, it is estimated that there are 687 "invisible units" , Allowing it to remain vacant for a long time, there is no need for the public to wait to go upstairs.

+1

Hundreds of feet of storage rooms and spaces are not fully used

During the inspection, the team discovered that there are 14 storage rooms in Kwai Shing West Village and 2 in Li Yao Village. The iron doors of each room are deep-locked. Some of them are marked with the floor number and room number, and some are only marked as "Storage Room". "Members once inspected the area of ​​the unit from the outside and found that the storage rooms are equipped with housing units of the same size on the same floor and on the upper floor. Only the storage room is empty. There are individual storage rooms that can store up to 4 large garbage. Bucket carts, the rest are vacant, with no use of everything.

Regarding the good use of storage rooms, the Office of The Ombudsman issued a report in 2018, stating that the vacancy rate of storage rooms in public housing estates in Hong Kong is as high as 40%, covering an area of ​​nearly 110,000 square feet, of which there are more than 700 square feet of units with windows. It also became a storage room and was left empty for nearly four years. It criticized the Housing Department for not making good use of land resources. At that time, the Housing Department claimed that it had removed some storage rooms or spaces from Kwai Shing West Village, Butterfly Village, Lung Hang Village and Shun Shun Village. The renovation project of a residential unit has been completed, but to this day, there are still 14 storage rooms in Kwai Shing West Village alone. The team has asked the Housing Department about the utilization rate of the storage rooms and whether they will change their usage. The Housing Department only replied Some storage rooms are small in size and fail to meet the requirements of relevant laws and regulations for lighting, ventilation and other aspects, and no consideration has been given to convert them into residential units.

The team also found 12 empty spaces with an area of ​​at least several hundred feet in Kwai Shing West Village. The Office of The Ombudsman once accused the storage room of being empty in the same report and found that there was a residential building underground in Shun Lee Village, Kwun Tong District. It is similar to many low-rise buildings that have connected spaces enclosed by iron fences and no objects are placed inside. The area of ​​some spaces is even similar to other residential units on the same floor. At that time, the Housing Department responded that the spaces were mainly planned for ventilation purposes. Therefore, the number, area and distribution of the spaces have not been counted. To this day, the team has asked the Housing Department again, and the response is that the spaces are designed for building ventilation in response to the early public housing standard buildings, and it is considered that they are not suitable for reconstruction. Residential legal requirements.

Express public housing allocation units are unpopular and reduced to idle units

In addition, according to the data provided by the Housing Department, the team found 47 and 68 units in Lai Yiu Village and Kwai Shing West Village respectively that were arranged as "Express Public Housing Allocation Scheme", of which 6 and 18 were idle respectively. For more than one year, it is reflected that even if they are put into the plan for rush applicants, they are still unpopular and have been vacant for a long time in disguise. The team estimates that there are about 564 express public housing units in Hong Kong that have been vacant for more than one year.

The concern group disclosed relevant data to the transit houses and rooftop houses to discuss and share their feelings. The vast majority of people think it was a waste of land resources. Among them, the female neighbour Grace said that after divorcing her husband in her early years, she took care of her son alone and worked in the catering industry to support her family and income. Limited to renting a rooftop unit in Kwai Chung for $6,500, there will be water leakage every time a typhoon and black rain occur. However, the application for public housing has not been approved for a long time, and there is no expectation.

She criticized the Housing Department for not speeding up the waiting time, and for not assigning empty spaces, storage rooms and long-term idle units for special needs, which is a waste. Yes, if the unit has been vacant for one more year, we have to wait for another year. This is to encourage the owner to reorganize more sub-district houses, and the more expensive the rent, the more detailed the owner will be."

Tiantai households: I am willing to go upstairs if no one chooses

Another rooftop tenant, Mr. Xie, who divorced his wife, took two children who were still studying, and rented a rooftop unit on the 9th floor of Tang Ninth Floor in Kwai Chung for RMB 5,500. A family of three had been waiting for public housing for nearly three years, but there was still nothing. In response, he said that his income was only over 10,000 yuan, he could not afford to pay for his children’s tuition, and he did not dare to go out to eat. Willing to go upstairs."

Former Kwai Tsing District Councillor Wong Run-tat said that the Fa Yuen Street fire and the building collapse in To Kwa Wan had occurred in the early years. There is a shortage of options for one to two people in Menbaotian Village. They must be scheduled for at least 9 months to 1 year before they can move in. I questioned "Any major disaster? The community hall can live for one or two days, but it won’t live there. For more than two months, are there any unpopular units that can be converted into transit houses?"

Kwai Tsing District Councillor Lam Siu-fai said that since he took office two thousand years, he has witnessed the incidents of residents of Tai Hom Village moving into transit houses after the demolition. It’s too late to re-planning by then. The Housing Department is required to plan ahead, such as setting up another team to allow unpopular and long vacant express public housing units to be allocated to the lower row of applications They may choose to provide vacant units in old-style housing estates that have been announced for redevelopment at preferential rents to residents of residential sub-divided houses or rooftop houses for short-term housing arrangements to reduce the financial burden of those waiting to go upstairs.

Hong Kong 01 is making enquiries with the Housing Department.

Shek Lei Transit House Demolition and Redevelopment The Housing Authority expects to build about 1,600 units in 7 years. Demolition of Shek Lei Transit House｜The team advocates population freezing instead of temporary shelters to "quench thirst" for residents to clear the Shek Lei Transit House｜Each There are old housing estates in the district and the vacant units are reduced to zero, which meets the needs of residents to clear the Shek Lei Interim Housing | There are 164 vacant units in the old housing estates in the district to promote the resettlement and removal of the Shek Lei Interim Housing in the same district | 90% of the interviews Dissatisfied with the need to relocate Baotian groups to Ji Keyuan district for public housing resettlement

01Community