Opinion | Devil in the details in Hong Kong’s efforts to raise housing game

What is contentment? Tasked by Beijing with lifting people’s overall sense of happiness, the Hong Kong government has been trying to translate an unquantifiable goal into quantifiable, actionable initiatives.

One example is the well-being design guide unveiled by the Housing Bureau and the Housing Authority last week. In eight booklets, the guide seeks to identity eight concepts of well-being to incorporate into public housing upgrades and future housing plans: including health, green living, age-friendliness, intergenerational living, community connection and upward mobility.

The guide includes more than 50 well-being strategies and 170 design suggestions, such as providing benches in lifts and hanging hooks near mailboxes. One idea here is to create a communal atmosphere for many elderly people who might be living alone after the emigration wave, by making it easier for them to leave the house, shop for groceries and perhaps linger downstairs for a nice chat.

Last December, Xia Baolong, Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong and Macau affairs, urged our city officials to have the courage to do things, have the capacity to do things, and to actually get things done. In the run-up to the policy address next month, the well-being design guide may have helped Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu meet a good number of key performance indicators.

Well, checking items off a list is not the same as delivering. A well-designed living environment for residents must also be implemented at the level of urban planning. Constructing public housing blocks out in the boondocks without adequate planning for public transport, for example, could result in another “city of sadness”, like how Tin Shui Wai once was.