CITIES, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING NOVEMBER 2011 For People, We CARE; - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

CITIES, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING NOVEMBER 2011

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Housing Inequality and Poverty in Hong Kong Society for Community Organization 2

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Phenomenon of Housing Inequality in Hong Kong • Social exclusion in the society • Absence of social justice and caring to the underprivileged among the society

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Existence of inhabitable cagehomes and cubicles • No. of households and No. of No. of Year persons living in inadequate Households Persons housing have decreased over 2001 97,600 210,100 the past years 2002 91,400 182,800 • Yet, over 75,000 dwellers are still living in degrading 2003 78,400 149,300 condition 2004 72,700 137,000 • The figure is underestimated 2005 67,700 122,800 as those residents living at industrial buildings are not 2006 58,300 111,500 counted. 2007 48,900 93,500 2008 43,700 89,200 2009 45,700 91,600 2010 35,500 75,600 4

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Stronger housing need: More people are waiting for public rental housing • Increasing number of population No. of registered (Over 320,000 people) waiting for Year applicants on the Waiting List Public Rental Housing due to the decrease of allocated units every year, 2001 104,833 decrease of newly built flats every 2002 86,359 year and increasing number of working poor and needy (poverty gap). 2003 91,921 2004 92,600 2005 94,100 2006 106,600 2007 110,800 2008 111,300 2009 111,400 2010 145,000 5 2011.6 155,600

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! WHO are the urban dwellers? • Low-income families and their children • Singletons • New Immigrants from mainland China • Working poor • Elderly persons • People with mental illness • Ex-offenders • Homeless, etc,. 6

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! HOW do they suffer? - Problems at the impoverished slums • Over 40 residents camped into 80 square meters flat, which is almost the highest density in the world.

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Each resident only lives at 1.5 square meter 8 tiny bed space.

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! • Poor hygiene and poor ventilation with cockroaches, fleas, rats and other insects found in the beds that residents easily fell ill and cannot sleep. South China Morning Post (8 August 2011)

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Extremely high temperature of cubicles and roof-top huts during summer which suffocates the residents and harm to health Hong Kong Metro (8 August 10 2011) Hong Kong Headline (2 August 2010)

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! The Standard (2 August 2010) 11 Hot weather at cubicles putting the life of the poor at risk

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Extremely high rent (as high as the luxury house) (maximum $500 /sq. meters.) which creates heavy financial burden Research findings: • an average flat of 8 sq.meters with a rent of HK$2,300. ($287.5 per sq.meters), with the rent-to-income-ratio of the tenants over 34.4%. Singpao News (15 August 2011) The Standard (8 August 2011) 12

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! International concern on the inhumane living condition of cage lodgers 13

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! The South China Morning Post & The Standard (16 June 2011) Highly condensed insecure • cubicles putting the life of the 14 residents at risk

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Collapse of old tenement building at Ma Tau Wai that killed the residents at urban slums (29 January 2010)

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Tenants under high risk of harm due to fire and poor safety • 80 tenants of partitioned-rooms at Sham Shui Po escaped from fire accident due to short circuit of ammeter and meter wire (4 November 2011) 16

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! WHY are they living at cage / cubicles? 1. Housing policy problem 1.1 Long waiting time for public housing 1.2 Discriminatory policies of public housing: - Introduction of discriminatory “point - system” for singletons - 7-year residency requirement for allocation of rental public housing 2. Poverty - Low wage cannot afford a decent living - Not enough rent allowance of social security - Expensive rent in the market - Depends on job opportunities and low living cost in old urban areas 17

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! (1) Discrimination against Singletons No. of one-person applicants for • Points system: discriminatory in public rental housing nature, ignore the housing rights of the young and mid-age singletons. Age Age Total below 60 over 60 • In March 2011, there are over 2004 32,900 3,400 36,300 70,000 singletons applicants in the waiting list of public housing. 2005 36,800 4,000 40,800 • Unknown waiting time for 2006 36,900 5,500 42,400 applicant aged 30 or below since the point system has been 2007 37,500 6,100 43,600 introduced in October 2005 2008 38,700 5,400 44,100 • Waiting time for mid-age poor singleton age will be 20 to 30 2009 43,100 5,400 48,500 years for public housing allocation . 2010.3 51,700 5,400 57,100 • Government only supplies 1,500 2011.3 ~63,400 ~5,600 >70,000 to 2,000 units for singletons each 18 year.

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Discriminatory application criteria for singletons - Points system • Singletons were not allowed to apply for public housing before 1985 • The Government introduce points system to singleton applicants so as to oppress young singleton applications in 2005. • allotted basing on an applicant's age when his / her application is registered. • “0” point will be given to applicants aged 18 • 3 points will be added for every year of age, • 1 additional point for 1 more month on the waiting list. Examples: • applicant aged 20: 6 points aged 23 who waiting for 3 years: 15 + 36 = 51 points aged 44 who waiting for 4 years: 78 + 48 = 126 points ** For applicants living in PRH, including rental housing operated by the Hong Kong Housing Society, 30 points will be deducted. • The higher points you get, the earlier allocation you will have. • BUT, points of allocating the housing is not fixed which will be adjusted with respect to the amount of public housing allocation and the points that other applicants have. 19

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! (2) Discrimination against New Immigrants from Mainland China Total No. of N.I. No .of N.I. numbe one- • Over 7,600 (March 2011) families r of person applications were frozen, while applicati applic application 2,800 children were affected. Year on be ation be frozen being frozen • During allocation, at least half (50% frozen or over) of the family members 1999 734 27,572 28,306 included in the application must have lived in Hong Kong for seven 2000 1,252 6,990 8,242 years and are still living in Hong Kong. 2001 2,345 9,219 11,564 2002 4,554 10,001 14,555 ** Children under 18 are waived if: (i) one of their parents having lived 2003 7,689 13,532 21,221 in Hong Kong for seven years; 2004 10,300 3,800 14,100 or (ii) Hong Kong born as permanent resident. 2005 10,500 5,400 15,900 2006 7,800 11,100 • 18,900 7-year requirement (at least half (50% or over) of the family 2007 6,100 10,300 16,400 members must have lived in HK) for allocation: discrimination against 2008 4,300 10,300 14,600 new immigrants from mainland China. 2009 5,400 3,000 8,400 20 2011.3 3,200 4,400 7,600

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! (3) The final refuge for the working poor to survive by themselves • Non-elderly families are NOT eligible for allocation of public housing at urban area (i.e. Kowloon and Hong Kong Island) • Allocated to public housing at far and remote area (New Territories) which results to high transportation cost, long traveling time, difficult to find job, weaken supporting network and even cannot afford to live at public housing.

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! (4) Needs of the Elderly persons were ignored • Elderly were re-housed in a new area which destroyed the original social and supporting network of the elderly. • Share flat for elderly result in dispute • Insufficient supporting service 22

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! (5) Sub-standard rent for social welfare recipients • Insufficient financial support for welfare recipients living in private rental housing that creates the market of partitioned rooms and cagehomes. 23 http://www.swd.gov.hk/doc/social-sec/CSSAG0811e.pdf

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT! Not affordable and insecure tenancy of habitat under high inflation • high rate of rent at private market under high inflation and strong demand of underprivileged. • Around 50% of the welfare recipients living at private rental housing whose monthly rent are higher than the Maximum level of Rent Allowance (MRA) provided by the Social Welfare Department between year 2009 and April 2011. Near 60% of them are 1-person household that the elderly persons (31.6%) and single-parent families (20.4%) are the majority groups. (as at April 2011) December December April 2009 2010 2011 Actual rent higher than MRA 23,602 23,009 23,128 Total number of welfare recipient living 49,750 47,334 46,737 at private housing % of actual rent higher than MRA total number 47.4% 48.6% 49.5% of welfare recipient living at private housing 24