100,000 children’s families in queue for public rental flats

The number of children whose families are in the queue for public housing has jumped 30 per cent in three years and now tops 100,000, a welfare group says.

A family of four now has to wait six to seven years on average to be allocated a public rental flat despite a pledge by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to ease the shortage of government-subsidised housing, according to Sze Lai-shan of the Society for Community Organisation (Soco).

"These families have to wait for such a long time that some of them even have new babies before they are offered public flats, which helps explain the rapid rise in children on the waiting list," Sze explained.

Based on official figures, Soco has calculated that the number of children aged under 18 waiting for public flats rose from 78,500 in June 2011 to 102,400 by end of last year. Soco says the total number of people on the waiting list increased from 320,900 in June 2011 to 459,800 last December. The government puts the average waiting time at three years.

Many low-income families are meanwhile forced to live in subdivided flats. Sze gave one real-life example of a couple with their two children, aged six and 12, crammed into a 40 sq ft space. "Each family member only has 10 sq ft," she said.

Sze said these families had to share tiny communal toilets and kitchens, and disputes with neighbours were common. In some flats, the proximity of the toilet and kitchen created severe hygiene problems, she added.