More than a week after a fire tore through a Hong Kong housing complex, killing 159 people, the city is confronting a major challenge. It must find homes for the thousands of residents who survived with little more than the clothes on their backs.

在香港一处屋苑发生大火造成159人遇难一周多后，这座城市正面临着一项重大挑战。它必须妥善安置数以千计的受灾民众，他们除了身上的衣服一无所有。

The government is already facing questions over its role in the worst tragedy to befall the city in seven decades. Now, survivors of the deadly fire are looking to the government to help them start over in one of the world’s most expensive and unequal places to live, where the average living space is smaller than a one-car garage.

这起自上世纪70年代以来香港最为严重的悲剧，让政府饱受质疑。香港是世界上生活成本最高、贫富差距最为悬殊的地方之一，人均居住面积还没有单车位车库大，现在，这场致命大火的幸存者正指望政府能帮助他们重新开始生活。

The residential towers in Wang Fuk Court were home to more than 4,900 residents, many of them from working-class families who bought their subsidized homes through a government program and had lived there for decades before the raging fire took the lives of their loved ones and reduced their belongings to ash.

宏福苑住着4900多名居民，许多是工薪家庭，他们通过政府的资助房屋计划购得住房，在这里居住了几十年，直到这场凶猛的大火夺走了亲人的生命，也将他们的全部家当化为灰烬。

“It was horrible — all of our belongings are gone,” said Diana Yu, 71, who lived with her 43-year-old son in a two-bedroom apartment. She watched in tears as flames engulfed the sixth-floor unit where she had lived for four decades, her two cats trapped inside. Ms. Yu will stay in a small room in a former Covid-19 quarantine facility, but she said she did not know for how long.

71岁的戴安娜·余和43岁的儿子住在一个位于六楼的两居室。她流着泪看着大火吞噬了她住了40年的公寓，她的两只猫被困在里面。“太可怕了——我们所有的东西都没了，”她说。余女士将暂时住进一处原新冠隔离设施内的一间小房间，但她表示不知道要住多久。

More than 3,800 Wang Fuk residents have been placed in makeshift apartments in onetime quarantine facilities, youth hostels and housing projects scattered across the city. Others have turned to friends and family for temporary stays because they need to be closer to schools, doctors and workplaces.

目前，已有超过3800名宏福苑居民被安置在分散于全市各处的临时住所，包括昔日的隔离设施、青年旅舍和公屋。还有一些民众为了靠近读书地点或者为了就医和工作方便，选择暂住在亲戚朋友家。

大埔区的一处灾民安置点，摄于上月。

John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, has called on citizens to “transform their grief and care into a force for reconstruction” and allocated about $38 million for the families affected by the fire. The government has held daily news briefings to announce the rising death toll. It has regularly updated the public about an investigation into the malfeasance that led to the fire.

香港行政长官李家超呼吁市民“把悲痛与关爱转化为重建家园的力量”，并为受火灾影响的家庭拨款3亿港元。政府每天举行新闻发布会，通报不断上升的死亡人数，并持续向公众更新对导致火灾的渎职行为的调查。

For the survivors, however, the most pressing concern is how to start their lives again.

然而，对于受灾民众来说，眼下最迫切的问题是生活要如何重新开始。

“We are all waiting. The relief funds are good for short-term, but long-term arrangements have to be solved,” said Leung Ho, 42, a truck driver who lived in the complex with his wife, two children and 70-year-old father, who bought their apartment in 1983. Mr. Leung and his family are staying with friends near Wang Fuk Court so they can be close to his children’s school.

“我们都在等。救济金只能解决短期问题，但长期安置必须解决，”42岁的货车司机梁浩（音）说。他与妻子、两个孩子以及70岁的父亲一起住在宏福苑，房子是父亲在1983年买下的。梁先生一家目前暂住在宏福苑附近朋友的家中，以便孩子能就近上学。

Over the past week, there has been a steady outpouring of support from the community. Volunteers have shown up to distribute food and clothing. More than $390 million in donations have poured in from the city’s 7.5 million residents. Posters taped to buildings that surround the site of the fire contain the names and contact numbers for dozens of nonprofit organizations that are also offering donations.

在过去一周里，社会各界纷纷伸出援手。许多志愿者前来分发食物和衣物。这座有750万人口的城市已收到超过3.9亿元的捐款。张贴在火灾现场周边建筑物上的海报列出了数十家同样提供捐赠的非营利组织的名称和联系方式。

But there is a scarcity of housing. Officials have said that residents can stay in temporary housing at no cost for as long as they need, but some residents want clarity on their future.

但住房依然紧缺。官员们表示，居民可以免费住在临时住所，需要住多久就住多久，但一些居民希望对自己的未来有更明确的安排。

The Hong Kong government is “committed to providing appropriate assistance to meet the housing needs of residents in the longer term,” said Michael Wong, the deputy finance secretary, in an emailed statement. The city would take into account factors like the condition of the buildings, the requirement for repairs and the preferences of the residents affected by the fire, he wrote, adding that the government would “not rule out any long-term possibilities at this stage.”

香港财政司副司长黄伟纶在一份通过电子邮件发送的声明中表示，香港政府“致力于提供妥善援助，以满足居民长期的住房需求”。他写道，政府将综合考虑楼宇状况、维修需要以及受灾居民的意愿，并补充说，政府目前“不会排除任何长期方案”。

But as thousands of survivors of the fire have begun to settle in temporary apartments, hostel rooms and transitional housing, their needs are already clashing with the harsh realities of Hong Kong’s deeply unequal housing market.

然而，随着数千名受灾民众开始在临时公寓、旅舍和过渡性住房中安顿下来，他们的需求已经与香港这个高度不平等的住房市场的严酷现实产生了冲突。

Hong Kong is a city plagued with some of the highest inequality in the world. Available space is limited, and wages have not risen at the same rate as housing prices. More than 215,000 people live in illegally subdivided apartments that are sometimes so small they are called coffin homes.

香港是世界上贫富差距最为严重的城市之一。可用空间有限，而工资上涨的速度远远赶不上房价。超过21.5万人居住在非法分隔的公寓里，这些住宅单位有时小到被称为“棺材房”。

去年，一名男子在香港一间被称为“棺材房”的分割单位里休息。

“In Hong Kong, we have a very large gap between the haves and the have-nots,” said Albert Lai, a civil engineer and founding chairman of the Professional Commons, an independent think tank focused on public policy.

土木工程师、专注于公共政策的独立智库——公共专业联盟的创会主席黎广德表示：“在香港，贫富差距非常大。”

The only immediate option available to help the residents of Wang Fuk Court is to tap public housing, Mr. Lai said. But nearly 200,000 people were already waiting for public housing before the fire, a backlog that currently takes about five years to address. Many displaced Wang Fuk residents are staying in some of the same facilities as citizens who are on the public housing wait list.

黎广德表示，目前能为宏福苑居民提供的唯一即时援助方案是动用公屋资源。但在火灾发生前，已有近20万人在排队等候公屋分配，目前的积压数量需时约五年时间才能消化。许多流离失所的宏福苑居民，现正与一些已在公屋轮候名单上的市民暂居于相同的设施。

If the government decided to move residents from Wang Fuk into public housing, this could take up as much as 10 percent of its average yearly supply, Mr. Lai estimated.

据黎广德估计，如果政府决定将宏福苑居民安置进公屋，可能会占用其年平均供应量的10%。

Even as residents try to settle into a new transitory state, many had more questions than the growing army of government volunteers and social workers could answer.

即便居民们努力适应新的过渡生活状态，他们心中的疑问即便有再多的政府志愿者与社会工作者也难以解答。

One of those questions focused on the recent maintenance fees that residents had been forced to pay to help cover a $40 million renovation that had been underway at the housing complex before the fire.

其中一个问题集中在火灾发生前居民被要求缴纳的最新一笔维修费上——这些费用原本是用来分担该屋苑高达3.3亿港元、火灾前正在进行的大维修工程支出。

It was this renovation, and a contractor’s decision to cut corners and save money, using substandard materials like flammable scaffolding netting and polystyrene foam, that caused the fire to spread so rapidly last week.

上周的大火之所以迅速蔓延，正是由于这次大维修工程，以及承包商为了省钱而偷工减料，使用了诸如可燃的脚手架防护网和发泡胶等不合格材料。

在对宏福苑大火展开调查之际，香港有关部门上周四指示工人拆除沙田穗禾苑一栋楼宇的脚手架防护网。

Mr. Ho, the truck driver, and Keith Cheung, 44, said their families had paid around $20,600 in renovation fees. “We’ve wasted so many years and so much money,” said Mr. Cheung, who lived with his wife and son on the 11th floor of the tower that was most badly burned.

货车司机梁先生和44岁的基思·张说，他们两家都支付了大约16万港元的大维修费用。“我们浪费了这么多年，也花了这么多钱，”张先生说。他与妻儿住在损毁最严重的那栋楼的11层。

Some residents said they wondered if those fees would be compensated, and whether their mortgages and other payments would count toward their next homes. Their questions have so far gone unanswered.

一些居民表示，他们想知道这些费用是否会得到赔偿，以及此前偿还的房贷和其他款项是否可以计入他们下一套住房。这些问题至今仍未得到答复。

Some hope for one-off monetary relief to repurchase a private flat in the same neighborhood, other subsidized housing options or a long-term housing accommodation while their old homes are rebuilt. Many expressed hope that they could continue to live in the Wang Fuk Court area. Some housing experts have suggested that the government could enlist one of Hong Kong’s deep-pocketed property tycoons to repurpose a private real estate development for the displaced residents. Mr. Lai, who previously advised the Hong Kong government on housing and infrastructure as a member of the Commission on Strategic Development, suggested that a special government urban renewal scheme could be repurposed to build a new complex on the same site.

一些人希望能获得一次性现金补助，用于在同一社区重新购置一套私人住宅，或获得其他资助性住房选择，或在旧居重建期间得到长期住房安置。许多人表达了继续居住在宏福苑一带的愿望。有住房专家建议，政府可找一个财力雄厚的本港房地产巨头，将一处私人地产项目改为用于安置受灾居民。曾任香港策略发展委员会成员、为政府提供住房与基础设施方面建议的黎广德提出，可调整现有城市更新规划，在原址重建一个新屋苑。

Residents described Wang Fuk Court as a tight-knit community where young children lived with their parents and grandparents. Some neighbors knew one another from church. Older residents, like Vinnie Chung, 68, had moved in when the housing complex was first built, in 1983. Ms. Chung said another couple in her building had lost their son in the fire. She recalled watching him grow up.

居民们形容宏福苑是一个邻里关系紧密的社区，许多孩童与父母、祖父母同住。部分邻里在教会相识。68岁的雯妮·钟这样的老住户自1983年屋苑落成便居住于此。她提到同栋楼有对夫妇在火灾中失去了儿子，她还记得看着他长大的点点滴滴。

一些宏福苑大火的灾民仍不确定接下来将住在哪里，而他们向市政府提出的许多问题至今没有得到答复。

“Now that life turned out like this, who wouldn’t be heartbroken?” Ms. Chung said.

“生活变成这样，谁不心碎呢？”钟女士说。

Some residents, like Mr. Ho, even wanted to go back to live in their old homes, though he knew it was too burned.

还有一些居民，比如梁先生，甚至希望能回到原来的家中居住，尽管他明知那里已被烧毁。

“The fire was too huge,” he acknowledged. “I know that there is no going back.”

“这场火实在太大了，”他承认。“我知道再也回不去了。”