Govt to arrange Wang Fuk residents to go home again

The government has been working on arranging Wang Fuk Court residents to return home again to salvage their belongings, according to Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk. The second batch of returnees includes residents of Wang Cheong, Wang Yan and Wang Tao blocks. Those of Wang Cheong and Wang Yan Houses were allowed to go home first starting on Thursday. Cheuk said residents who have not already expressed a need to go home for a second time can still raise their wishes. “Six hundreds residents already expressed their wishes to us that they want to go home again. We will arrange that,” he said. “If residents who are returning home today did not express such a wish before, they can tell their social workers, and we will actively arrange that.” He added the government would remain flexible in arranging for residents, who are not available at their designated timeslots, to head home at another session. Cheuk noted that November’s inferno had severely damaged Wang Cheong and Wang Tai blocks, which led to more deaths. He noted that residents of the two blocks would need more emotional and psychological support in particular. Therefore, he said, all residents going in and out of the two buildings would be accompanied by a police officer. As for units with fatalities, respective households will each have a clinical psychologist and social worker from the Social Welfare Department to accompany them the whole time, Cheuk added. He also said the government was delighted to see that residents were able retrieve items that are valuable to them over the past few days. Residents from Wang Tai House, Wang Kin House and Wang Shing House will be the last batch to return to their homes between April 29 and May 4. Edited by Tony Sabine