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Letters to the Editor, November 12, 2017

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Low-income families in Hong Kong face a long wait for public housing. Photo: Nora Tam

Flats scheme gets poor out of cubicle units

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I appreciate the efforts of the NGO, Society for Community Organisation, which is renovating old flats owned by civic-minded landlords to improve the living conditions of poor families in the long queue for public housing. For many of them, the only other option is to pay for a small and costly subdivided unit, and endure cramped and unhygienic conditions.

However, while I welcome this project, it is quite small in scale. For there to be similar schemes and more of these flats, the government must provide the NGOs ­involved with more financial help.

With additional subsidies, NGOs can renovate a lot of old flats and rehouse subdivided unit tenants while they wait for that coveted public ­estate home.

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This would seem to be money well spent by the administration, given that I do not see it being able to shorten the long waiting list for public housing any time in the near future.

I also think the relevant government department should be helping NGOs to convert abandoned industrial buildings into housing.

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