A group of residents of a Hong Kong apartment complex that burned down in late November have appealed to the city authorities to rebuild their buildings so they can return to their neighborhood and avoid forced relocation elsewhere.
According to the South China Morning Post, more than 100 residents of the buildings destroyed by the fire have already signed the petition.
According to the petitioners, returning to the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex would be “the only way to regain dignity and hope“. The residents of the burned-out buildings say they have lived in the complex for many years; the neighbors had gotten to know each other, helped each other, and “became a family long ago“.
“We plead with the government to rebuild the housing in the Wang Fuk Court complex, to allow us to return to the place where we knew each other, and to continue living a stable life with our families and neighbors. The pain of losing our homes is not only the loss of the place where we lived, but also the loss of the roots that provided us with stability“, the appeal says. The petition was sent to John Lee (Li Jiachao), the head of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and Paul Chan (Chen Maobo), responsible for financial affairs.
Commenting on the appeal, a government spokesman told the newspaper that the authorities are “collecting and summarizing the opinions of affected residents and assessing the situation in the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, including factors such as structural safety and technical feasibility“, in order to “prepare a long-term proposal as soon as possible“.
As previously reported by the city government, more than 4,600 residents of the burned-out complex are currently accommodated in housing provided by the city authorities. 489 people live in hotel rooms and 551 are in hostels or on campuses. Another 3,591 people are currently living in temporary housing provided by the City Housing Bureau.