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200 thousand squatters, known as Hong
Kong’s “floating poor,” reside atop forty thousand skyscrapers in
filthy, cramped, shacks (many times 2 or 3 stories high). They pay on average $1,000 HK
dollars or about $100 US for these dwellings a month. There is little to no privacy or
security. The thin walls have
holes and the roofs are hardly strong enough to keep out the
elements. Many of the
residents are elderly and cannot fight back when they are robbed, a
common occurrence. They have
no other options.
Hong Kong has the second most expensive
land in the world and according to the UN’s Gini
Index the gap between the rich and the poor is the fifth
widest. With no minimum wage,
non-existent unemployment benefits, no pensions for the elderly, wide
spread employment discrimination, and a general lack of social
systems, it is no surprise that HK residents face many hardships –
including in the housing sector.
Although housing is guaranteed in the former British colony,
the waiting list is very long and thus hardly guaranteed. It is much more profitable for
those in power to privatize housing than to support public housing,
so it is no surprise that the government and the media backs
privatization, despite its consequences for the public at large and
illegality of turning public land over to private hands.
Housing in Hong Kong is split between the
private and public sectors. According to representatives from the
Grassroots Development Centre, a training and resource center for HK
activists, the private sector is made up of urban slums and these
rooftop dwellings. It also
has luxury and middle class housing for
those who can afford it.
The public sector is under the Housing Authority. The government is making moves to
privatize all of HK’s housing, by creating its own excuse. The Housing Authority is split
between three different areas: rental housing, non-domestic
properties, and the home-ownership scheme (aka: build/sell
scheme). The government
bankrupts themselves on the build and sell scheme and rentals for
shops and parking. They use
these bankruptcies as an excuse to stop the home-ownership scheme and
start to sell the small rental shops and parking to big developers,
namely the Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit). By bankrupting themselves the
government creates an excuse to sell off the property to private
investors whose shareholders become powerful with huge bargaining
power.
As well as bankrupting the buy/sell option
and market rentals in order to then sell to private investors, once
legal rooftop dwellings in the private sector become illegal and
residents are relocated to “temporary” housing where there are no
public facilities, no schools, and no businesses. At first the
squatters are compensated minimally at a small fraction of what they
should be compensated at.
Even this is only for a short time. On an arbitrary day the remaining squatters are not
compensated at all. However,
they will still have to pay for the demolition. The tenants’ new
“temporary” shacks are made of fiber wood and are located down dirt
roads. The displaced
squatters cannot afford public transportation and thus have no way to
make a living.
The shantytown situation is not an
improvement from the thin roofed and walled dwellings atop the
skyscrapers, but they pose less threat to profits in the
shantytowns. They no longer
are on top of valuable real estate.
Construction is everywhere in HK as you can see new
developments replacing former community stores and dwellings,
surrounding the remaining community markets and floating poor.
These pushes have not met without
resistance from the public. Politicians disappear when issues
arise. Government officials
are either not elected by the public or, if they are, elections are
only held every seven years, leaving no real accountability at
all. However, this does not
stop the people from taking action.
The government’s attempt to privatize all of HK’s housing has
caused major mass protests and lawsuits against the government. Lo Siu-Lang, an elderly activist,
in particular has pressed legal action against the government. She sued the Housing Authority for
privatization of housing by its selling assets to Link Reit. Siu-Lang appealed the rubber-stamp
of the Legislative Council so the government sought to expedite the
normal appeal time from 28 days to a mere half-day. Fortunately, the courts found this
unlawful and denied the government’s request.
“Three things are universal [in Hong Kong];
healthcare, housing, and education.
If any of these were taken away their would be mass riots,”
one Hong Kong youth stated.
We can already see that this is true with the reactions to the
privatization of housing thus far with people protesting the
privatization. The more the
government pushes, the more people push back. Although restricted and against
many odds, activists in Hong Kong continue to persevere. The Grassroots Development Centre
and the fight against unfair housing situations is just one example
of the potential in Hong Kong activists. The GDC strives to provide a
“platform for organizing”; space for activists to meet and organize,
to plan, to recruit, to discuss, to support one another, and to
strive together for a better world.
And as they will gladly tell you, “we really believe
organizing is power.”
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