Once designated a quarantine facility during the Covid pandemic, a sprawling site in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong, is set to be home to a youth hostel for thousands of young people, as the city deals with a housing crisis. The project in Kai Tak, named Runway 1331 - after a former airport on the site - opened on Sunday for trial operations, offering 250 rooms for rent starting at HK$200 ($25; £19) a night. It's part of Hong Kong's Youth Hostel Scheme, which aims to house young people at affordable rates while they save up to rent or buy their own place. Houses in Hong Kong are among the most expensive in the world - and notoriously small. With waits for public rental flats lasting five years on average, many opt to rent subdivided flats where dozens of tenants are packed into a single apartment unit, also known as "coffin homes". In 2020, the first facility under Hong Kong's Youth Hostel Scheme started operations. The scheme supports non-governmental organisations to build and operate youth hostels where people can live for up to five years. There are currently two facilities in operation - both in the northwestern New Territories - which offer rooms to people aged 30 or below. The hostel unveiled in Kai Tak on Sunday offers rooms for people aged 40 or below. It also aims to be a cultural hub, with some rent-free rooms set aside for tenants with creative talents. These tenants are expected to give back to the community by organising workshops and other events to share their skills, according to local media. "We hope Runway 1331 ultimately will develop into the world's biggest incubator for the youth," said entrepreneur Winnie Chiu Wing-kwan, who is developing the project with a state-owned enterprise, the South China Morning Post reported. The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau said it hoped the community would also promote exchanges among Hong Kong tenants and youth from mainland China and abroad. The 11.5-hectare (28.4 acres) site, which consists of 3,000 unused quarantine rooms with private toilets, is expected to be fully operational later this year. There had been calls for such Covid quarantine facilities to be repurposed to fill the intense housing demand. The facility in Kai Tak is one of several quarantine sites that were built during the pandemic, and which could collectively house hundreds of thousands of people. As Covid restrictions lifted and these facilities emptied, calls mounted for them to be repurposed into residences to combat the city's yearslong housing shortage. — BBC
