Liu Peiyu walked through the streets and alleys of the Sham Shui Po district, walking in a hurry. She has been with the community for 17 years. Elected as a member of the District Council for the fifth consecutive year, Liu Peiyu has always believed that she is just a community service worker: "I have been lost, feared, and cried, but I have never given up! ”
Rise to the challenge of subdivided units
Located in the northwest of the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong, Sham Shui Po is home to a large number of subdivided units in Hong Kong. Subdivided units, also known as "subdivided flats", are a common type of housing in Hong Kong, whereby an owner or "second landlord" subdivides an ordinary residential unit into two or more smaller detached residential units for sale or rent. The smallest area is only 4 square meters, and often does not exceed 10 square meters. As a "veteran" District Councillor of Sham Shui Po, Lau Pui-yuk is very familiar with such an unusually cramped and dimly lit living environment and the plight of those who live in it. Residents face many challenges in employment, education, and many of them are elderly people living alone and sick children.
During a recent visit, an all-media reporter from Yangcheng Evening News accompanied Liu Peiyu to a subdivided unit that belongs to the nature of a "three-no building" (no property management, no air conditioning, no elevator) to deliver daily necessities to the subdivided unit households. Ms Lee, a resident, lives with her 5-year-old daughter in a subdivided unit of about 6 square metres, and the family has been waiting for public housing allocation for six years. Especially during the fifth wave of the new crown epidemic in Hong Kong in 2022, their lives are even more difficult, and their daughters can only rely on the only mobile phone in the family for online classes, and the monthly data cost has become a heavy burden on the family.
In response to the current situation, Lau Peiyu launched the "Support for Online Learning Programme for Children in Subdivided Units in Sham Shui Po", and cooperated with China Resources Group, a state-owned enterprise in Hong Kong, to provide computers and Wi-Fi Internet access equipment for subdivided unit families, which covered more than 70 subdivided unit families in the district, greatly alleviating the problem of online classes for children in subdivided units.
Solving the problem of "difficulty in getting upstairs" for subdivided unit households has been included as one of the important policy objectives of the current-term HKSAR Government. According to the latest data from the Housing Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government, as of 20 February 2024, a total of 12,163 housing units have been put into use in Hong Kong, 8,937 housing units have been funded, and it is expected that more than 21,000 transitional housing units will be put into use in Hong Kong by the end of 2024.
Liu Peiyu and her team actively invited subdivided unit residents to visit the transitional housing and helped them write request letters, hoping to improve their living conditions as soon as possible. "As District Councillors, our first task is to understand and reflect the problems and opinions of residents to the government. Liu Peiyu said.
A new attempt at the "community living room".
Sham Shui Po is undoubtedly one of the areas with the largest number of subdivided unit households in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong SAR Government has made a number of attempts to help subdivided unit residents get out of their predicament. On 18 December 2023, Hong Kong's first "community living room" was piloted and opened at Fuk Wa Street in Sham Shui Po, where residents of subdivided units living in the surrounding area have become frequent visitors.
Under the guidance of Liu Peiyu, the reporter walked into this "community living room" to experience it for himself: it not only provides a shared living room for children to do homework and carry out group activities after school, but also is equipped with a shared kitchen and a shared dining room where residents can cook and eat, in addition, it also provides public facilities such as self-service laundry rooms, shower rooms, and children's games and reading areas to meet the daily needs of residents in an all-round way.
"The 'community living room' is like a second home for subdivided unit residents. Lau said that the "community living room" in Sham Shui Po is led by the SAR government, supported by the Government Community Care Fund, and hosted by Lok Sin Tong in Kowloon, and the scheme will run for three years. According to reports, the project aims to improve the living environment of subdivided unit residents through the cooperation of the government, business and the public. Since its opening, the "community living room" has become a "check-in place" for community residents, receiving an average of more than 150 visitors per day, significantly improving the quality of life of residents.
Do not give up and are committed to good governance
Since taking up the post of Sham Shui Po District Councillor in 2008, Lau Pui-yuk has served in Sham Shui Po District Council for 17 years. She knows every street, every corner, and every shop. Looking back on those events over the years, Liu Peiyu admitted that there have been many ups and downs, especially during the 2019 black riots, when she faced serious personal safety threats, and she even needed to wear body armor to participate in public activities on the streets. However, Liu Peiyu firmly stated that she never thought of giving up. "Because I know that the support of the community has always been my motivation to persevere. Being elected as a district councillor for five consecutive terms is an honor in the eyes of others, but in my heart it is an even more unbearable responsibility!" said Liu Peiyu.
It has been more than three months since the new term took office, and Liu Peiyu has pledged to work to improve people's livelihood and address the urgent needs of community residents. "I hope to continue to do practical things for the residents, solve the problems they face, and work together to achieve good governance. ”
Chief Planner |
General Coordinator|Jiang Zheng
Executive Coordinator|Wang Manqi, Li Guohui
Text: Wang Manqi, Liang Yuan, Li Guohui
Video: Liang Yuan, Li Guohui
Editing|Jeffrey Lai
Poster: Jeffrey Lee