Three new community living rooms to open doors early in summer

The community living rooms in To Kwa Wan, Hung Hom, and Nam Cheong will open earlier in the summer holiday, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun Yuk-han said.

These community living rooms, which were first introduced in Sham Shui Po last year, are designed to cater to the needs of impoverished households residing in subdivided units. The facilities aim to alleviate the pressure on caregivers and enhance the living standards of the residents.

"Over 50 primary schools have participated in the afterschool care service program this academic year, and the program is set to expand to 100 schools next year," Sun said.

He added that the government is actively seeking partners to cooperate and swiftly establish additional community living rooms.

In March, Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki said the four community living rooms are expected to serve some 1,750 subdivided households, encompassing a population of around 270,000 individuals each year.

Lawmakers also criticized the government for no longer defining the poverty line. The government's focus on targeted poverty alleviation is centered around three specific groups in Hong Kong - households residing in subdivided housing, single-parent households, as well as elderly households, which collectively comprise approximately 950,000 people.

Tik Chi-yuen, a lawmaker representing the social welfare sector, criticized the government's poverty alleviation policies as "imprecise and inaccurate."

He added: "This measure is important to assessing the population and characteristics of underprivileged groups, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of government policies."

In response, Sun said there is no absolute definition of poverty but rather a concept of "relative poverty." He acknowledged the limitations of using the median income as a basis for determining the poverty line, adding that the government has ongoing projects aimed at accurately assisting those in need.