Social housing in Hong Kong: From social movement to “new” housing policy?

The Housing poverty in Hong Kong is aggravated due to a shortage of public housing in the past decade. Since 2017, the Pilot Project of Transitional Social Housing called Community Housing Movement is launched by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service with the joint efforts of the Funders, landlords, and NGOs/social enterprises (SEs), supported by the Government to address the issue. The Council plays the role of an intermediary platform in soliciting idle residential properties from corporate and individual owners, and building modular housing on idle lands, and through NGOs/SEs as qualified operators accommodate the needy. The core idea of the Project is not only to meet the housing needs of the grassroots families, but also address their poverty issue including improving citizen’s personal, family and community life through on-site housing service intervention. This model does not only help increase the supply of affordable housing, but also pay a way for a new collaboration between non-profit sector, the government and the private sector in the housing and construction area. Meanwhile, it creates a new imagination of elements of affordable housing for future development. Highlight: https://ln.edu.hk/sgs/cities-and-governance-webinar-2021-02-highlight