Hong Kong housing chief vows to locate more land for transitional homes after visit to subdivided flats and ‘cage homes’
- Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho made remarks following visit to subdivided flats and ‘cage homes’ in Sham Shui Po
- Ho says she is working on housing report to be submitted within first 100 days of new administration
Hong Kong’s new housing chief has vowed to locate more land for transitional homes that can be used for a longer time, following her first visit as minister to several of the city’s notorious subdivided flats.
Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin on Sunday made the pledge following a field trip arranged by the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) during which she visited tenants living in four subdivided flats and “cage homes” in Sham Shui Po, and met another 20 residents.
Subdivided units are shoebox dwellings created out of existing flats, usually in old tenement buildings, while cage homes are just large enough for a person to lie down in.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on his blog and on a radio programme that two newly established interdepartmental task forces on land supply and public housing estates would hold their first meetings this week to focus on expediting land and housing supply, speeding up project delivery and streamlining development-related procedures.
“Certain unnecessary procedures handled by different departments should be eliminated while the statutory ones should be conducted simultaneously. Some internal work in the bureaucratic structure should also be reduced,” he said, without providing examples.
