The PolyU Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI) has released the interim findings from its “Study on Effective Transitional Housing Delivery in Hong Kong” (the Study) and its report on policy recommendations. Funded by the Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme, the Study is the first comprehensive study of Hong Kong's transitional housing programme.

The Government plans to complete 84 transitional housing projects and provide over 21,000 housing units by 2024-25, among which over half are in the New Territories. The Study examined 35 projects located on open-air sites with newly constructed relocatable units using Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) technology, which account for about 86% of transitional housing units delivered under the programme. Compared with programmes in other cities using relocatable building structures, the Study concluded Hong Kong’s transitional housing programme to be unprecedented in terms of scale and development speed while also having the widest societal participation.

Whilst pointing out the merits of the transitional housing programme in Hong Kong, the Study also identifies various pain points from the stakeholders’ experiences. These include the relatively short tenure of the sites, limited scope of the Government’s funding scheme, technical issues encountered in the design and development process, concern about occupancy rates of projects at remote locations, funding for provision of supportive services for tenants, and the administrative burden related to tasks including project promotion, tenant recruitment and eligibility assessment.

The Study supports the Government taking up the role as builder in the Light Public Housing programme to enhance the efficiency of delivery, and proposes multiple policy recommendations.

For details, please refer to: Interim findings and policy recommendations of “Study on Effective Transitional Housing Delivery in Hong Kong”