The government said on Saturday it would start taking apart a four-storey building used as transitional housing in Sham Shui Po before the units are reassembled and reused in Tai Po later.

The building, comprising 89 units, was the first transitional housing project in Hong Kong adopting a modular integrated construction approach.

During its operation between 2020 and 2022 in Sham Shui Po, it helped improve the living environment for 175 residents.

An engineer with the Housing Bureau, Wilson Cheung, said the units would be taken to a warehouse for checks before they are put together again for a new transitional housing project in Tai Po a month later.

The government said it had been working to promote the development of transitional housing to provide short-term housing to people in need.

It said about 9,500 more transitional housing units are expected to be completed by the end of 2023.