​The Housing Bureau (HB) will launch the “Trial Scheme on Special Allowance for Households of Transitional Housing” (“Trial Scheme”) tomorrow (August 22) to provide assistance to the new households of transitional housing for removal and adaptation to the new community.
      
     The “Trial Scheme” provides a one-off special allowance for new households of transitional housing projects under the “Funding Scheme to Support Transitional Housing Projects by Non-government Organisations” to alleviate their pressure arising from expenditures during removal and adaptation to the new living environment (such as children’s school transfer, moving/purchasing furniture and electrical appliances, re-establishing community networks, etc.). There is no restriction on the use of the subsidy so as to allow households to meet their own needs in a more flexible manner. The scheme is targeted at households who have moved into transitional housing units on or after June 16, 2023. The households receiving the allowance will have to stay in the unit for at least one year, and will not be granted the allowance for a second time thereafter.
      
     The spokesperson of the HB said, “The HB noticed that many of the households moving into transitional housing are low-income grassroots people who may not be able to afford the relocation expenses. Therefore, the HB successfully applied to the Commission on Poverty on June 16 this year for a funding of $85.2 million from the Community Care Fund to support the two-year “Trial Scheme”, with a view to providing the households with timely support and encouragement. It is estimated to benefit as many as 35 000 people.”
      
     The amount of disbursement depends on the number of family members living together in the household and the region of ​​the project they are moving into.  The amount of disbursable allowances is listed in the table below:
 

     The households can submit an application for the allowance to the operating organisations when completing the procedures in taking up the allocated transitional housing unit. The operating organisations will disburse the allowance within 20 working days after receiving the application. If the applicant approved for the allowance has not yet moved into the project at that time, it will be disbursed within 10 working days after formally moving in.
      
     Application forms and details will be available from the operating organisations of transitional housing projects or can be downloaded from the website of the HB (www.hb.gov.hk/eng/policy/housing/policy/transitional/index.html) starting from tomorrow. For enquiries, please call the Task Force on Transitional Housing under HB at 3579 5549.

     To further facilitate the application for transitional housing by those in need, the Housing Bureau (HB) has strengthened its co-ordination and improved the application process. A central common application form is launched today (June 20) to help the public make one-stop application for different transitional housing projects. 

     Through this form, the applicants can apply for up to three transitional housing projects at the same time with different priorities based on their individual needs. Once the forms and supporting documents are received, the HB will first centrally and preliminarily process the applications, and then refer them to the respective operating organisations for follow-up based on the applicants’ priority. 

     An HB spokesperson said, “After unifying the format, distribution and collection method of the form, applicants no longer need to submit separate applications to different transitional housing projects. This not only makes it more convenient for the applicants but also reduces the administrative work and processing time for the operation organisations. This will speed ​​up the matching process and improve the living environment of the applicants as soon as possible.” 

     The form is distributed and collected through various channels, including the one-stop thematic transitional housing website (www.hb.gov.hk/eng/policy/housing/policy/transitional/tenantapplications.html), various operating organisations, the Transitional Housing Information Counter (located in the Hong Kong Housing Authority Customer Service Centre), and the Cash Allowance Office of the Housing Department.

     In addition to the form, the HB is actively preparing to set up a unified platform to facilitate online applications for transitional housing. The unified platform is tentatively planned to be launched in the third quarter of 2023.

     The Government has been promoting the development of transitional housing in the past few years. By actively assisting non-governmental organisations to make use of short-term vacant land and premises, about 7 000 units have been put into service so far to alleviate the housing difficulties faced by applicants waiting for traditional public rental housing and those who are inadequately housed.