At present, the average waiting time for public housing is as long as 6.1 years, a record high in 23 years. However, many old-style public housing estates have the strange phenomenon of being unoccupied.
A survey by grassroots housing organizations concerned found that there are as many as 874 vacant flats in 45 public housing estates with an occupation period of 40 years or more in Hong Kong, and nearly half of them have been vacant for more than one year. Among them, Shunli Estate has the most vacant flats. up to 110.
The organization criticized the government for "going alone" for relocating the residents of the subdivided houses in the demolished rooftop houses or the residents of the Shek Lei interim houses to be rebuilt to the Tuen Mun interim houses or temporary shelters, urging them to have public housing units that have been idle for a long time and should be converted into Transit house to meet actual needs.
Shun Lee Estate becomes an old housing estate with the most vacant units in Hong Kong
Concerned about the resettlement policy, contact the Housing Department to obtain public information on public housing estates, and found that there are a total of 45 public housing estates with an occupation period of 40 years or more in 13 districts in Hong Kong, with a total of 874 vacant flats, among which Kwun Tong District has the most , reaching 317, followed by Kwai Tsing District with 154 units. If calculated as a single estate, Shun Lee Estate in Kwun Tong has become the estate with the most vacant units in Hong Kong, with 110 vacant units.
If calculated based on the vacancy period of vacant units, 50.9% of the vacant units in Hong Kong were vacant for less than one year, the remaining 49.1% or 429 units were vacant for one year or more, and 15.9% of the units were vacant for more than 2 years.
Among the 874 vacant units, 198 were vacant due to haunted homes, accounting for 22.7% of the overall vacancy rate.
For units that are vacant due to "congenital reasons", for example, there are locations in the unit that are designed to create obstacles for people with disabilities, the unit is located above the 4th floor and there is no lift in the entire building, or the unit needs to regularly allow engineers to enter and inspect the roof ribs and floor engineering facilities There are 735 units near the exhaust flue, air-conditioning machine room or garbage room, etc., accounting for 84.1% of the overall vacancy rate.
Connection member He Jiaan said that the data shows that most of the vacant units are vacant due to congenital structural factors, breaking the common misconception that "long-term vacancy is a haunted house". The 874 vacant units are equivalent to 6.63% of the average housing construction of public rental housing in the past 10 years. They believe that vacant units are a very important housing resource, and the relevant departments should cooperate with people with different housing needs and make good use of the batch of housing units. Units for people in need to live in.
A family of three was forced to move to a temporary shelter after the roof house was demolished
The other day, Ms. Ling, a tenant from Tiantai, said that she and her two children who were studying in middle school had been introduced by a friend to rent a roof-top house in Tsuen Wan about two years ago. She originally thought that the rent of a roof-top house was cheaper than that of a subdivided house, which would reduce the burden of living. However, last year 1 Yue Tu was informed by the owner that she had applied to the court for a repossession order, asking her family to move out in March of the same year. Since she had no extra money to rent a subdivided apartment in the same district, she had to wait until the bailiff repossessed the building and arranged to transfer it to the Tuen Mun Temporary Retention Center. live.
She said that she supported her family by working as a cleaning worker, and her income was not high. She tried to find suitable subdivided housing in Tsuen Wan, but the rent for a 100-square-foot unit was at least HK$5,000, and she could not afford it. In the door-to-door transit house, the family currently has to travel from Tuen Mun to school and work across districts for 1 hour.
Neighbors: Po Tin Village has transit houses and ordinary public housing tenants. Can you tell me about others?
Grace, who works in the catering industry, said that she supported her two children by herself. Due to her income, she could only rent a 300-square-foot rooftop house in Kwai Tsing for $7,000. She was waiting for public housing to go upstairs. Earlier, she had received a letter from the Buildings Department, urging the owner to remove the unauthorized structures on the roof, which made her feel hesitant. She pointed out that she can now work in the same area, and if she moved to the Tuen Mun Temporary Retention Center, it would be equivalent to depriving her family of her family. In her life circle, moving to a worse environment than a rooftop house made her unacceptable. She believed that the government should convert the vacant units of public housing into interim housing.
"The government makes good use of vacant units and at least seeks a shelter, even if (a unit) is close to a garbage room."
Mr. Xu, who has been waiting for public housing for 14 years, is still living in the Shek Lei IH flat. At the end of last year, he was informed by the Housing Department that he would need to move to the Po Tin IH before May this year. He has had three opportunities to "inspect the flat". So far, he has given up once, "it is only treasure fields to choose from." He quoted that there are 94 old housing estates in Kwai Tsing District that have been vacant for more than one year or more and have been occupied for more than 40 years, but are currently not eligible to go upstairs. There are only more than 30 households in the transfer housing, and the number of vacant units can meet the needs. We urge the government to follow suit.
"Po Tin Estate in Tuen Mun is not only used for interim housing. It also has ordinary public housing tenants. Can other housing estates (vacant flats) be incorporated into interim housing?"
Chen Weixiong, a member of the Connection Concerning Resettlement Policy, said that vacant public housing units are precious resources and should be put to good use, urging them to be converted into transit housing.
(Photo by Mo Jiawen)
Chen Weixiong, a member of the Concern about Resettlement Policy, said that there are 874 vacant units in public housing buildings aged 40 years or above in various districts. It is suggested that these precious public housing resources should be put to good use. Convert housing to the residents affected by the government's clearance and law enforcement actions. At the same time, study the replacement of "storage rooms" and "empty rooms" in old housing estates such as Kwai Shing West Village, Lai Yiu Village, Butterfly Village, Lung Hang Village and Shun Lee Village. "The feasibility of converting into housing units.
He also pointed out that Hong Kong’s resettlement policy has not been comprehensively reviewed for many years since 2002, and it is necessary to conduct a large-scale survey of the whole territory to collect statistics on the number of illegal residential units in Hong Kong, including industrial buildings, rooftop houses, and unauthorised subsidised flats on the platform. The number of units and the number of subdivided housing units that have not been included in the regulations, and then conduct public consultations and solicit opinions from potentially affected households, the government can formulate goals, make specific policy planning and financial arrangements, and fundamentally improve the current resettlement policy that is useless.
"Invisible Units" Appeared in Old Public Housing, Unallocated Team The tour guide is unemployed and the house is expected to wait for 34 years before getting upstairs
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