Charity given deadline on huge rent rise
Arthritis group must decide by tomorrow between finding more cash or losing home
A charity says it has been given just five days to decide whether to give up its headquarters or pay close to 50 per cent more in rent, potentially leaving the organisation out of funds in a year.
In May, the Hong Kong Arthritis & Rheumatism Foundation learned that the monthly rent for its 144 square metre base at Nam Shan Estate, Shek Kip Mei, would increase from HK$13,000 to HK$19,000 when its lease expires at the end of this month.
Talks with landlord the Housing Authority resulted in a reduction to HK$18,000 - and the authority on Monday told the foundation it had until tomorrow to decide whether to pay up or move out when the lease ends.
Either course of action would put at risk the charity's services for hundreds of arthritis patients.
"With a monthly rent of HK$18,000, we may only be financially able to keep our foundation running for about one more year," treasurer Chan Kar-lok said. The group last week wrote to the Chief Executive's Office to seek help, but has so far only received a letter of acknowledgment.
The foundation had asked the authority, a public body, to provide the offices on a welfare rather than commercial lease, for which the price would be just HK$49 per square metre.
The authority instead offered premises elsewhere that were allocated for welfare use. But the foundation says its offices must be in a place that is convenient for clients, many of whom suffer chronic pain, and that the sites offered were too remote.
"We tried to find common ground on the revised lease with officials from the Housing Authority by suggesting that it be readjusted to HK$15,000 instead of HK$19,000," the group's executive officer Den Law Mei-ha said. "But they refused and said HK$18,000 was the final offer and we could either take it or leave it."
Among the activities at risk should the foundation run out of money would be regular, subsidised exercise sessions at a local pool, which Chan describes as "one of our major activities".
The foundation has also written to all lawmakers to alert them of its situation.
A spokeswoman for the Chief Executive's Office said letters were handled within 10 days of receipt and that senders would be told which department their queries had been handed to.
The Housing Authority had no comment on the matter.
