URA plans HK$1.76 billion urban renewal project in Mong Kok

Thousands of home owners and tenants in Mong Kok will be forced to move as the Urban Renewal Authority begins a multi-billion dollar redevelopment.

The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announced on Friday that some 3,500 people from about 350 tenement buildings located at the junction of New Reclamation Street and Shan Tung Street will be affected. The authority said it expected to spend HK$1.76 billion on the redevelopment. About HK$1 billion will be spent on property acquisition and compensation to affected tenants forced to relocate.

The elderly are those who are expected to feel the greatest impact, said members of the Yau Tsim Mong District Council.

In a 500-odd square feet house which has been partitioned into four cubicles, there are five elders. One lives in what is supposed to be a sitting room. All are renting their spaces. Some have lived there for more than a decade because of the HK$1,200 rent.

As tenants, they were offered two choices, either to receiving an exgratia payment calculated according to their rent, or applying for a place on a housing estate. If they opt for compensation, they will have to look for another apartment which may well be more expensive, or they may continue to live in partitioned houses.

One of the five elders who lives in the house, 91-year-old Ai Lan, said she had no idea where she could relocate. Living with Comprehensive Social Security Allowance, Ai had not applied for a housing estate. "I'm 91 years old, how could you expect me to wait for the approval of a public house?" said Ai. "I hope that no matter what, the government can offer me a place to live in."

According to a spokeswoman for the URA, one of the major goals for redevelopment projects in old areas is to help elders move out of inadequate living conditions such as cage houses and cubicles. For this project, social workers from the Salvation Army will offer assistance to the affected dwellers.

Relocation may take place about a year from now after authorization from the Development Bureau is issued and public opinion is heard.

District Council member Chan Wai-keung also noted that commercial tenants on the ground floors may also lodge complaints over the options they have. Chan said that many commercial tenants involved in the previous redevelopment projects were not satisfied with the compensation they were paid.

Yan Yuet-hing, a 60-year-old tenant who has worked in a hardware store for decades, said she will have to retire. According to URA's offer, she should get around HK$70,000 compensation. But if she relocates, she will lose all the contact with whom she has done business for so many years.

District Council members, however, welcomed the redevelopment plan. They said many of these buildings, which were built in 1959 or 1963, have turned very old and seedy with sub-standard living conditions. Dwellers who are living in the house complained that there is always water leakage from neighboring subdivided apartments.

andrea@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

(HK Edition 02/11/2012 page1)