A social housing network for co-tenancy of single mothers with children
Light Home is a social housing network made up of individual apartments in 15 districts across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and even the Outlying Islands. Light Homes are not subdivided units, and they consist of flats located in housing estates and single-block buildings, old and new buildings, urban and suburb settings, and all Light Homes have their unique features.
Light Home landlords mainly consist of citizens who care about the housing and poverty problems. They hold residential property for long term and are financially capable to less consider income from rent, so they choose to lease them to Light Be for use as Light Homes. In 2012, the first Light Home landlord purposely bought a flat dedicated for use as a Light Home. Nowadays, more and more landlords have chosen to turn flats that were previously for market rent, investment or vacant into Light Homes. It could be said that Light Home started a new trend in our society. So far, the first batch of Light Homes have completed two consecutive 3-year tenancy agreements, and the renewal rate of landlords is as high as nearly 80%. For the past six years, these landlords have not followed the market price, and did not participate in subdividing units.
Light Home tenants are single mothers with children. They are often stuck in personal development because of intermingled difficulties in family structure, low income and inadequate housing prior to their Light Home tenancy. During the 3-year tenancy period, Light Home Managers will strive to promote the personal development of tenants in different aspects of life so that they could become more able to develop themselves. Since co-tenancy is a feature of all Light Homes, tenants’ ability to live together will be important.
