Single applicant waits over a decade for public housing, lodging in a coffin home

After a decade and a half in a coffin home renting for just over HK$1,000 a month, a 50-year-old odd-job worker is still on the public-housing list, and has periodically slept rough on the streets in between. Hong Kong consumers note that non-elderly single applicants routinely wait ten years or more for public housing; the points-based scheme ranks them painfully slowly, and during the wait they can only lodge in subdivided flats, cubicle rooms or coffin homes, with living conditions deteriorating with each move.

Public housing is allocated by points and a fast-track mechanism, so single applicants sit permanently at the back of the queue; the rent accumulated over the wait can reach several hundred thousand dollars, and with low system transparency, applicants struggle to estimate when they will finally be housed. More dispiriting still, some observe that those who present special circumstances or play up their hardship seem to be allocated a flat faster, fostering a perception that playing by the rules pays off less than gaming the system.