Grassroot residents can move into hotel rooms for HK$3,970 a month at Lok Sin Tong's first “transitional housing in hotel” project.
The scheme, which the organization is running in collaboration with B Hotel in To Kwa Wan and the Transport and Housing Department, offers 161 rooms to families who have been waiting for public rental housing units for three years or above and low-income teenagers.
Transforming hotel rooms into transitional housing is the fastest way to provide residential units to residents, who can move in within just three months, said the Lok Sin Tong chief executive Alice Lau Oi-sze. The hotel sector and grassroots families will benefit from the scheme as well, she said.
Tenants arrived at the hotel and got the keys to their rooms this morning, including a 60-year-old man surnamed Tong who has been living in a 75-square-feet subdivided unit in Tai Kok Tsui.
Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan earlier visited his home in Tai Kok Tsui and invited Tong to have a look at the rooms offered by the LST Housing scheme.
Tong was impressed by the room. The area of the room is almost double that of a subdivided unit. The rent, which covers water, electricity and wifi, costs only HK$4,000, which is about 30 percent cheaper than the rent he used to pay. There are also MTR stations and bus stops nearby.
Tong thanked Lok Sin Tong and the government for helping his family finding a new home.
Single beds and double beds will be offered in these 161 rooms, as well as toilets, closets, fridges and TV sets. Tenants must cook in the shared kichen located at on the second floor. They can also purchase nutritious mealboxes at HK$25 each offered by a social enterprise under Lok Sin Tong.
The monthly rent for the rooms ranges from HK$3,970 to $4,370, depending on the size of the room.
