Under chief executive Leung Chun-ying, who left office in June, programs to alleviate the skyrocketing cost of housing have been called “a failure, if not a total flop”. Despite pledging to make housing the centrepiece of his administration, Leung built only half the amount of public flats he promised to deliver.
“The housing situation is getting worse,” says Angela Lui, a community organiser at Soco for the past seven years. “In terms of rental prices, quality of the apartments and waiting time for public housing, all of these things have gotten worse.”
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The average wait time for public housing is more than four years and eight months, increasing by a full year compared with 2016. More than 100,000 families are vying for coveted spots. But the government’s calculation excludes several types of people, including single people under 65, who can be forced to wait more than a decade.
As wait times for government housing increase, “it means these people are stuck in a poor living environment for a longer amount of time”, Lui says. She travels between dozens of coffin apartments, passing out donated goods, helping residents apply for government benefits and undertaking the maddening task of trying to map the transient community.
There are about 200,000 people living in some form of subdivided apartment in Hong Kong, including coffin homes, and 18% are younger than 15, according to a government report released last year. But Soco say the number is likely higher, as many illegal apartments were left uncounted.
3 Beautiful Spring Drive along the Snake River (Idaho/Oregon)