The chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service has called on the government to turn quarantine facilities into transitional housing to benefit people on the public housing waiting list.

Speaking after a radio programme on Sunday, Chua Hoi-wai said a quarantine camp in Kai Tak, which has 2,700 units, would be ideal for the purpose.

He said the authorities could combine some of the units there into larger flats for bigger families, and the conversion of the entire facility would only take about three months.

Chua said he hopes the Kai Tak camp would provide transitional housing for up to five years, if there's no other plan for the site in the near future.

"We really need more transitional housing, especially those in the city centre. With this provision I would expect more grassroot people living in subdivided units could move into transitional housing earlier," he said.

Last year, the government proposed providing 20,000 transitional housing flats for families who have been waiting for a public rental unit for at least three years or those who are living in subdivided homes.