‘We are fearful’: Hong Kong youth hostel closure leaves tenants scrambling for housing

Some tenants of a government-subsidised youth hostel in Hong Kong fear having to return to shoebox homes and are scrambling to find alternatives after a private operator announced its shutdown last week.A resident of the BeLIVING Youth Hub in Causeway Bay told the Post on Friday that the hostel’s operator, the Hong Kong United Youth Association, had called tenants last Monday and Tuesday to tell them that they would have to clear their flats by February 28.“We are all fearful now. We are worried that we won’t have a place to live after February 28,” Timothy Chan, a 31-year-old tenant, said.BeLIVING Youth Hub is one of the premises under the government’s youth hostel scheme, where non-profit operators offer rooms at rent prices that are lower than the market rate and run hotel-to-hostel facilities.Responding to a Post inquiry, a spokeswoman from the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau said the operator of BeLIVING Youth Hub had “recently” been told by the owner of the building that they would not extend the lease to the non-profit, and had been helping tenants to find new accommodation.“The operator of the project had explored the potential of extending a lease with the building owner last year, but was recently told that the owner would not provide an extension; therefore, they could not operate a youth hostel at the site,” the spokeswoman said.