Hong Kong housing: push to turn empty hotel rooms into temporary flats trips over red tape
- The government wants to hand over 800 unoccupied hotel and guest house rooms to residents stuck in the years-long queue for public housing
- But some operators complain that offering longer leases is difficult when many must renew their licences annually
A pilot scheme to find 800 rooms at hotels and guest houses to use as transitional accommodation for residents waiting for public flats in Hong Kong has tripped over red tape, according to a partnering non-profit organisation.
The programme is intended to provide the residents with at least two years’ housing. But according to the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), many guest houses are licensed annually and the lack of absolute certainty over their future makes it difficult to offer longer leases.
“The risk is that if their licence gets suspended after a year, we will have to find another guest house for the tenants,” said SoCO community organiser Ng Wai-tung.
Ng said that even though the Transport and Housing Bureau, which was in charge of the scheme, allowed flexibility in signing 12-month leases, quickly finding new accommodation for tenants if the licence was terminated after a year remained a challenge.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the scheme for people in the queue for public housing when she delivered in her annual policy address last November.
