HONG KONG // Their precarious rooftop houses have offered refuge from an unaffordable Hong Kong property market, but some of the territory’s poorest residents face losing their makeshift homes as the government seeks to dismantle them.
Perched on top of older buildings, the ramshackle dwellings may offer penthouse views in a city where space is at a premium, but the flimsy structures are frequently battered by typhoons and magnify oppressive summer heat.
The government says they are not safe –– and many of those who live in them agree.
But with luxury apartments selling for more than US$50 million and a waiting list for public housing stretching for years, they say there is nowhere else for them to go.
“The rent is so high out there, how can we leave here? It costs at least several thousand [Hong Kong] dollars, we cannot afford it,” said Su Xingyun, whose family of four lives in a tiny two-room rooftop hut which is under a government removal order.
Their chipboard and corrugated iron home is one among a dark warren of around 10 shacks on top of a 10-storey building in the working-class Sham Shui Po neighbourhood.
Ms Su, 46, moved from mainland China to join her husband, who had lived on the rooftop for 20 years. She would like a better home for her young daughters and has been applying for public housing for several years.
“During a typhoon I’m really afraid. I’m worried that the roof will collapse because I can feel the walls shaking. It’s not safe for a family.”
“We don’t have any privacy,” added Ms Su. A dank shared kitchen with a toilet and shower hose in one corner is where the family cook and wash.
Rooftop residents either own their homes or pay minimal rent to shady landlords. Upgrading to private accommodation can prove impossible, campaigners say.
“The deposit, commission and first month’s rent for even a tiny sub-divided flat can be more than HK$10,000 [Dh$4,700],” said community worker Angela Lui from the Society for Community Organisation (Soco), a local campaign group.
“It’s a big number and families can’t afford it.”
Many rooftop homes were built in the 1950s, when there was an influx of immigrants from mainland China and few building restrictions. Now, it is an even mix of migrants and Hong Kong residents, says Ms Lui. Some have done so for more than 30 years.
While there is no exact record of the number of rooftop residents, there are more than 170,000 substandard homes throughout the city, according to authorities.
The government says its campaign against “unauthorised building works” (UBWs), which include rooftop homes, is in the interests of public safety. Between 2001 and 2011 the buildings department removed 400,000 UBWs.
But the pace of rooftop removals is now outstripping the ability to rehouse due to a lack of coordination between the buildings and housing departments, said Ms Lui.
“The planning of evictions should be linked to the planning of resettlement,” Ms Lui said. “It’s a systemic problem.”
Landlords and tenants of UBWs are not entitled to compensation from the government.
“No one told me this was illegal,” said Ms Su’s neighbour Quang Xuan, 55, a refugee from Vietnam who works as a handyman and has lived in his rooftop home for 10 years.
“When people told me we had to move out I said to myself OK, I will go if I can find another place. But if I can’t find somewhere I can afford, I risk becoming homeless, living under a flyover or in a park.”
Soco estimates that there are about 1,200 homeless people in Hong Kong.
Both the buildings and housing departments declined interview requests but said in statements that they worked closely together and that public rental housing would be offered to those who were eligible.
Eligibility criteria include means testing and living in the rooftop home for more than two years prior to the removal order.
The buildings department said it would not make any resident homeless.
At the end of March this year, there were almost 250,000 applications for public rental housing. The average waiting time for general applications is three years, the housing department said.
Those who are not eligible can get temporary accommodation, but Ms Lui says that moving to the “transit centres” on the outskirts of Hong Kong means residents have to uproot their lives, their children and their jobs, which many do not want to do.
Residents of the Sham Shui Po rooftop have come to an agreement with the building’s landlords – who can also evict them – that they can stay for up to three years, said Ms Lui.
The buildings department removal notice, issued in 2012, does not give a timescale for eviction.
What is certain, though, is that the illegal homes will eventually be torn down.
In the short-term, rent subsidies would help residents move on to something better. But to solve the worsening housing crisis, the government needs to build more affordable homes.
“Hong Kong now is a rich city with a high GDP,” Ms Lui said.
“We have the responsibility to ensure that everybody living here enjoys adequate housing.”
* Agence France-Presse
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
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MATCH INFO
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Namibia beat Oman by 52 runs
UAE beat Namibia by eight wickets
UAE v Oman - abandoned
Oman v Namibia - abandoned
What is double taxation?
- Americans living abroad file taxes with the Internal Revenue Service, which can cost hundreds of dollars to complete even though about 60 per cent do not owe taxes, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service
- Those obligations apply to millions of Americans residing overseas – estimates range from 3.9 million to 5.5 million – including so-called "accidental Americans" who are unaware they hold dual citizenship
- The double taxation policy has been a contentious issue for decades, with many overseas Americans feeling that it punishes them for pursuing opportunities abroad
- Unlike most countries, the US follows a citizenship-based taxation system, meaning that Americans must file taxes annually, even if they do not earn any income in the US.
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
Company%20Profile
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ODI FIXTURE SCHEDULE
First ODI, October 22
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Second ODI, October 25
Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune
Third ODI, October 29
Venue TBC
The specs
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City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
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Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
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City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
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- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
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The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
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THE SPECS
GMC Sierra Denali 1500
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
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Company%20Profile
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
