A study of social stigmatization of public rental housing in Hong Kong

Abstract

Stigma refers to any negative perception on an object. If something is being stigmatized, the mass population shall expel those being stigmatized through treating them differently. And those being stigmatized shall strongly feel a sense of difference from the mainstream value. In this paper, social stigma on public rental housing (PRH) in Hong Kong is the core focus of study. Experiences from foreign countries having significant PRH developments clearly show that large-scale PRH neighbourhood usually bears strong social stigma for the simple reason of the concentration of the underclass. Owing to the various government policies in respect of PRHs implemented, i.e. targeted PRH allocation policy, intensive management practices, homeownership promotion and limited investment in enhancing PRH living condition together with the ill-intentional reporting method adopted by the mass media to exaggerate the family problems encountered by the PRH residents in order to boost up their sales rate, social stigmatization of large-scale PRH is greatly reinforced. PRH residents then easily feel a sense of inferiority and being looked down upon resulting in being treated differently in many aspects of daily living. Non-PRH residents also contribute to sustain such stigma on PRH residents through minimizing their social contacts with the latter to significantly exclude them from the normal society. To cope with such negative perception on PRHs, governments of foreign countries tried to conduct image engineering programmes to alleviate the poor image such as launching redevelopment programmes and the realization of tenure mix practices if possible. In a word, it is crystal clear that social stigma on PRH exists in the large-scale PRH developments in foreign countries which associates with both their residents and residency. Back to my local research, the number of PRH in Hong Kong is consistently increasing. What would be the phenomenon of PRH in Hong Kong nowadays? This comes to the centre study of this research which is to draw a convincing conclusion to justify or refute if social stigma on PRHs in Hong Kong is apparent. To develop a coherent argument to testify the statement, a straightforward plan of analysis by adopting four social outcomes measuring instruments, i.e. perceptions on PRHs from PRH and non-PRH residents; phenomenon of PRHs, acceptability of PRHs and the root causes accounting for residents’ perception, is established to take up the task. To realize the analytical framework, secondary data from the Hong Kong Housing Department (HD) would be obtained to study; site visit to Tin Yiu Estate, an estate locates in the “City of Sadness” – Tin Shui Wai for grasping the genuine PRH residency would be conducted; street questionnaire surveys in Tin Shui Wai Estate neighbourhood and the Central and Western District would also be carried out to collect the primary perception from PRH and non-PRH residents on PRH. By analysing all the data obtained, it is nevertheless concluded that social stigma on PRHs in Hong Kong is, overall speaking, not apparent, social stigma on Tin Shui Wai PRH estates are perceived. Besides, the role of the mass media in shaping the perception of the majority mass on PRHs in Hong Kong is found to be significant. Also, the reason for applying for PRHs shifts from “residents’ genuine need” to “a kind of benefit opened to all those eligible”. Such findings are food for thought for the policy makers to address. This paper would now explicate the aforesaid findings and implications in a systematic manner.