Hong Kong government to rehouse low-income earners

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Housing in Hong Kong is the least affordable you will find anywhere in the world, a title the city has retained for more than a decade. The city’s government has come up with a plan to rehouse those living in the worst conditions, but some critics say it is just delaying the real solutions.

Transcript

00:00In Hong Kong, real estate is king, if you're well off.

00:08But for those locked out of the city's notoriously expensive market, there are these homes, flats

00:14subdivided into just enough space to live.

00:18Here, one person lives, and there's another person living upstairs.

00:24You can see, this apartment has 26 rooms.

00:30Several of us work in restaurants, two are security guards, all working night shifts.

00:35I work the morning shift, start at 8am, finish at 6pm.

00:40When I leave, they're still asleep.

00:44Advocates say there are well over 200,000 people living in premises like this.

00:50Actually, they are single people, but also the family with children.

00:53We estimate there are around 50,000 children, they are under 18, they're living in these

01:00kind of conditions.

01:02I've been living here for 10 years, almost 10 years, on the public housing waiting list.

01:08Hong Kong's leader John Lee wants to phase out all subdivided flats smaller than 8 square

01:13metres and those that don't have a window or individual toilet.

01:17But critics say that will only make the housing crisis worse, and for those that can least

01:22afford it.

01:24What worries the tenants most is that it will only push up the rent of the remaining subdivided

01:35flats.

01:36They have nowhere to go.

01:38They are waiting for public housing, but they don't know when they will really get one.

01:43To help alleviate the huge public housing waiting list, the government plans to build

01:4830,000 temporary units that it calls light public housing.

01:52Here in Kai Tak, there are plans for 10,000 temporary units near the train station.

01:58Locals aren't happy, but are afraid of speaking out.

02:01There will be 30,000 people in this area, right?

02:06So whether the transport station, the social facility, whether it can support this many

02:14people, this population, yeah, I heard a lot of concern in the neighbourhood.

02:22Like housing crises around the world, there are no quick or easy answers.

02:27We think actually, eventually, we hope there's no subdivided flats or caged home or cubicle

02:33in Hong Kong.

02:34So we think they should include them, and then have a timetable to eradicate this kind

02:39of housing.

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