Sham Shui Po District has a long history and is among the earliest developed districts in Hong Kong. The proportion of elderly persons aged 65 and above is 15.9% in 2016. Though Sham Shui Po is an old district, its long history has contributed to its relatively well established development and social network. The continuous development in the district in recent years, such as the redevelopment of old housing estates, and implementation of new infrastructure plans and community facilities, highlights the needs of building an age-friendly community to enable older people to live independently in the community. The living environment of the district will no doubt be further improved.
Over the years, Government departments, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and local organisations have been contributing to build a better environment, in both physical and social aspects, to facilitate older people to live independent in the community. Using a bottom up approach, a baseline assessment was conducted as part of the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project to explore the views of older people living in Sham Shui Po on the age-friendliness of the District with reference to the eight age-friendly city domains within the World Health Organisation’s Global Age-friendly Cities framework. With the concerted efforts of the Sham Shui Po District Office, the Sham Shui Po District Council, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and the Institute of Active Aging of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the baseline assessment and 3-year action plan were discussed and developed that provided insight for developing initiatives to improve the age-friendliness of the district.