James' Concourse, under St. James' Settlement, will provide 205 units for people or families who live in poor conditions in February next year. Application will open until October 15.

The project is located at the junction of Yen Chow Street West and Tung Chau Street, providing flats ranging from 135 to 272 square feet. The rent will be 25 percent of family income or the maximum rent allowance under Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, whichever is lower.

Each unit comes with individual toilets and bathrooms with electric water heaters, and cooking space with electric stoves.

The service targets single persons aged 18 or above, 2-person families, and 3-person nuclear or single-parent families with at least one child aged 17 or below. They should be living in sub-divided units or other inadequate housing and have been waiting for public housing for at least 3 years.

Successful applicants who passed the interviews are expected to move in next February and will be accommodated for 2 years. They could see the tenancy extended for one more year if necessary.

An expected 420 people are to benefit.

Josephine Lee Yuk-chi, CEO of St. James’ Settlement, said that more than 200,000 people are still living in inadequate housing in Hong Kong, which brings great stress to the physical, mental and financial needs of the tenants. In addition, they also lack community support.

“We have been operating transitional housing services for nearly four years and that we hope to use our experience to serve more people in need, to support their housing and living needs, and to create a social service model that includes enhancing tenants' health, employment skills and building social capital for future transitional housing", Lee said.

A briefing session will be held on September 30 and October 6. Interested members of the public, social welfare organizations and local organizations co-workers can sign up on the website https://socialhousing.sjs.org.hk or call 6916 7670.