‘Prefabricated social housing for Hong Kong’s needy may be completed by next September’

Social service group sets sights on modular housing aimed at alleviating plight of the poor, as city’s leaders discuss issues at poverty summit

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Protesters outside the Commission on Poverty summit in Tamar. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 8:01am, 25 Mar 2018Updated: 11:47am, 25 Mar 2018

Construction of Hong Kong’s first social housing development made from prefabricated units could be completed as early as September next year under a government-backed pilot project for the needy.

Property giant Henderson Land Development agreed to lease out a residential site, likely to be in the New Territories, to the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), an NGO, for a token fee of HK$1 for the group’s new transitional social housing project, sources said.

Some 80 to 90 prefabricated modular housing units could provide temporary homes for the city’s less fortunate.

(From left) Secretary for Labour and Welfare and chairman of the Community Care Fund Task Force Law Chi-kwong; Chief Secretary and chairman of the Commission on Poverty Matthew Cheung Kin-chung; and chairman of the Special Needs Groups Task Force Chua Hoi-wai at the Commission on Poverty summit. Photo: Edward Wong

“By using some modular units, [and putting them together like Lego], we can build the houses in a relatively short period of time,” HKCSS chief executive Chua Hoi-wai said on Saturday. He spoke at a Commission on Poverty conference, a government summit exploring issues regarding the poor and social housing.

“We hope that we can use some unutilised land or sites for a certain period of time and then after returning the land to the developer or the government, move these modular units to another site so that we can recycle the units,” Chua explained. “We can save money and be more environmentally friendly.”

Hong Kong prefabricated home trials to be launched at HKU and Science and Technology Park

At the same conference, Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan revealed that the government, acting as a facilitator, had been helping with a modular construction project aimed at providing transitional housing for the underprivileged.