Hong Kong’s rising poverty no longer confined to older districts, population expert warns

Poverty has spread across Hong Kong and is no longer only concentrated in some older districts, a population health expert has warned, urging the authorities to reintroduce the official poverty line and mobilise the public to help tackle the problem together.

But welfare chief Chris Sun Yuk-han has made it clear the government will stick to its revised policy of targeted alleviation, arguing that monthly income alone should not be the yardstick for measuring poverty.

Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, chair professor at the University of Hong Kong’s department of social work and social administration, sounded the warning about worsening poverty on Saturday, pointing out that more low-skilled workers were hit the hardest after the pandemic.

“Poor people are facing the problem of economic restructuring,” he told a radio programme.

“Our latest studies have found that poverty has mushroomed everywhere in Hong Kong, unlike in the past when poor people were usually located in some old districts such as the northwestern part in the New Territories, Tuen Mun, Tin Shui Wai or Kwun Tong.

“In other words, poverty has proliferated in every district in Hong Kong.”