As the supply of public housing in Hong Kong has been lagging behind the demand, the current SAR administration has adopted a new mindset to introduce simplified public housing to fill the short-term shortfall in the supply of public housing.
The priority application period for the second batch of projects closed yesterday (March 17). The Housing Bureau started to accept applications on Feb. 24, receiving a total of 5,300 applications. However, under the existing system for public housing, non-elderly singletons have to wait for more than 10 years for public housing, which means they are getting farther away from "getting a flat", and are not eligible to apply for Light Public Housing.
Earlier, Wen Wei Po directly reported on the hardship of non-elderly singletons living in sub-divided units and their endless waiting time. They do not want to change the existing point system for Public Rental Housing (PPS), but they want to be accepted for Light Public Housing. In reply, the HA pointed out that the existing Quota and Points System (QPS) had already taken into account the increase in the number of non-elderly one-person applicants, and that there was no plan to increase the quota under the QPS at this stage.
Life in a subdivided unit
In the dead of night, Mr. Suen, 57, climbed up the half-meter-high bed platform with a tired body to tidy up all his belongings scattered on the single bed panel, and after taking a long breath of fresh air from the exhaust fan, he switched off the bedside lamp and slept with bed bugs and cockroaches.
Over the past few years, he has been "reincarnated" in the subdivided flat market, jumping from one bad living environment to another, which he describes as an "inhuman" life.
A single-person sub-divided unit in the market can only accommodate one single bed, but the rent is as high as HK$2,500 to HK$3,000, with the toilet and kitchen being shared with others. The cramped conditions and poor interpersonal relationships are memories he doesn't want to bring up again. "Public places are very dirty and unkempt, so don't think you'll be fine if you clean up your own place. At night, the cockroaches and bed bugs will come out of the public space and suck your blood."
Mr. Suen mentioned that five years ago, he lived in a sub-divided flat with a mentally ill tenant who used to chop his door at night with a knife, "I was so scared that I didn't dare to go to the toilet.
Even though Mr. Suen has now moved to a single sub-divided unit in a slightly better environment, he still suffers from emotional problems due to the poor space and lack of windows, "My daily life is to face the four walls of my rooms, and I feel very unhappy," he lamented.
"The room I'm living in is almost 'inhuman.' I want to be a human being again, so I applied for public housing in the hope that I could have my own toilet and kitchen, and a bigger living environment."
No way out
Sixteen years ago, Mr. Suen resigned from his full-time security job with a monthly salary of HK$15,000 to apply for public housing and took up casual work to earn a living, just to comply with the income limit for public housing.
"I earn about HK$9,000 a month from doing odd jobs or cleaning on weekdays." Due to the constraints of his home, he usually eats out, with rent and food expenses taking up about 80% of his income.
"I also suffer from neck degeneration and need to see a doctor when in pain, so it's not easy for me to make ends meet," he said.
Mr. Suen had applied for transitional housing through the Society for Community Organization (SoCO), but the project was filled quickly. He then turned his attention to Light Public Housing but found that the scheme was mainly offered to applicants who had been on the waiting list for conventional public housing for three years or more, and priority was given to family applicants, i.e. singletons were exempted from the scheme, which repeatedly dashed his wish to improve his living environment.
"At present, there are a large number of one- to two-person flats available but singletons are not allowed to apply for them, which is a very big problem. He pointed out that there are many small flats in Hong Kong's housing estates, and the SAR Government should provide a certain number of places for singletons to relieve their pressure.
The more he thinks about it, the more worried he is about the imminent implementation of the Proposed Regulatory Regime on Basic Housing Units. "After the implementation of the scheme, owners of substandard sub-divided units will evict us from the premises for redecoration, then will I have to sleep on the streets?"
Quota for relevant applicants has been increased to 10%, HA says
In reply to an inquiry from Wen Wei Po, the HA said that since the QPS was revised in 2014 to increase the annual PRH quota as a percentage of the total number of PRH flats to be allocated to non-elderly one-person applicants from 8% to 10%, the maximum number of flats from 2,000 to 2,200, and people who are closer to the age of 60 will be allocated flats sooner.
The number of applications from non-elderly one-person applicants has dropped sharply by nearly 40% from a high of about 140,000 in 2014/15 to 86,000 in December last year. During the same period, the number of non-elderly one-person applications from persons aged below 30 dropped significantly by 57% from 73,800 to 31,700.
The HA is of the view that the arrangement has already taken into account the increase in the number of non-elderly one-person applicants and has no plan to increase the quota for non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS at this stage.
(Source: Wen Wei Po)
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