Recently, there have been cases of fires occurring in industrial buildings, including one that took the lives of two brave firefighters. These incidents once again remind the public of the hazards posed by illegal use of industrial buildings.

Indeed, reports about widespread illegal use of industrial buildings for residential purposes have caused great public concern about fire hazards. Among other things, when an industrial building stores dangerous goods and people reside in it, the potential risk of fire cannot be underestimated. There are also many cases of other illegal uses, such as spaces in industrial buildings converted into temples or columbaria. When people worship their ancestors in these places, the risk of fire accidents increases considerably. The government has rightly taken high-profile enforcement action against six industrial buildings considered to pose hazards to their occupants. It is expected that further action will follow in future.

With housing costs running forbiddingly high in Hong Kong, subdivided units are quite popular. Some people have criticized the authorities for "overlooking" the problem of subdivided units. However, in formulating the long-term housing strategy, the issue of subdivided units has been taken into consideration. The government has commissioned the University of Hong Kong to carry out a study on the issue. The data collected have been used in drawing up the Long Term Housing Strategy. Hence, it is not fair to say that the government is not well aware of the problem. The government might have been slow in formulating a solution, but given the complexity of the housing problem in Hong Kong, a handy solution is unrealistic. In the past, many people urged the government to wipe out all subdivided units completely and immediately. However, many people now ask the government not to do so before the occupants are properly resettled.

Residents of subdivided units belong to the grassroots, whose incomes are not high enough for them to afford decent living quarters. Subdivided units are the only alternative for them. Worse still, many of them have to choose illegal subdivided units in order to save housing costs. In other words, occupants of illegal subdivided units in industrial buildings know that their residences are illegal but they have no choice. The problem of illegal subdivided units is so serious it cannot be tackled easily and speedily. Some people suggest the government provide public rental housing to these people. However, we cannot let these people "jump" the queue for public rental housing, otherwise the question of fairness will arise. Using limited resources in public housing to resolve the problem of illegal subdivided units is not practical.

Some people and concern groups suggest the government can temporarily resettle these people in interim housing or other housing projects to address their housing needs. However, interim housing has specific usage and the supply is limited. This means it is impossible to use interim housing to resolve the problem. As mentioned earlier, if the occupants of illegal subdivided units can get public rental housing faster than other applicants, it will be unfair to those on the waiting lists. Moreover, if the occupants of illegal subdivided units are treated more favorably than others, it will further encourage more people to reside in illegal subdivided units.

In simple words, the concern groups might have good intentions, but their suggestion - using vacant public premises and unoccupied government quarters for interim housing - is not practicable. This shows that those concern groups do not understand the housing problem very well. When the problem is not clearly identified, their suggestions will not make much sense. Rather, they might only raise unrealistic expectations from the grassroots. This is not the desired outcome.

In the long run, there is no doubt that the government should ban illegal subdivided units altogether. But the right way to tackle the problem is to increase the supply of public rental housing. This is the real solution to the problem. Nevertheless, increasing public housing is easier said than done. It is common knowledge that the government's efforts to increase public housing have been hindered by a strong opposition due mostly to the "NIMBY" - not in my back yard - attitude of many citizens. The chronic problem of land shortage still prevails.

(HK Edition 07/21/2016 page9)