A community activist group is urging lawmakers to put more pressure on the government to improve living standards in subdivided flats and push for better pathways for people living there to transition to public housing. The Society for Community Organisation (SoCo) arranged for several legislators to visit three households who live in poor-quality flats in Sham Shui Po on Sunday, a day ahead of the United Nations' World Habitat Day, which raises awareness over sustainable urban development. “We visited a subdivided flat. There are 10 households. Every room there's around only three square metres. And the toilets, most of them are in front of the room door and the ventilation is poor, and some of them even don't have windows,” said SoCo's deputy director, Sze Lai-shan. “We hope the legislators and the government will pay attention to those people living in poor conditions.” The lawmakers then attended a sharing session to gather feedback from other people who are also residing in subdivided flats or being relocated to transitional housing. A mother, Ms Li, said she hoped the governemnt could extend how long people can live in transitional housing, saying it wasn't easy to get her three children, two of whom have special learning needs, to settle down. They moved from a subdivided flat in Tai Po to transitional housing in Sham Shui Po last year and are still waiting for public housing. The government's transitional housing initiative allows people to stay for up to two years for each tenancy term, while they wait for public housing. But latest government data showed the waiting time for public housing is still more than five years. Meanwhile, 77-year-old Mr Wong, who currently lives in a 40 square-foot subdivided flat which lacks windows and cooking facilities, said he had turned down an offer to move to a transitional housing unit in Yuen Long, after learning that where he was allocated also lacked basic amenities and reliable transportation options. Sze said this shows that while the government should think of plans to eradicate substandard units, it should also assure affected residents the rehousing options were available and properly arranged.
