Stung by the pressing shortage of affordable housing in Hong Kong, Ricky Yu decided to do something about it. He left his job in senior management for a multinational corporation in 2010 to establish social housing platform Light Be, which seeks to lift individuals out of short-term poverty. It offers flats throughout the city, secured with the help of owners who share his concern for the city’s housing crisis, where tenants are offered below-market rents for a period of two to three years, as well as career, family and financial guidance.

Light Be has received support from organisations including Social Ventures Hong Kong, the Lee Hysan Foundation, the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation and New World Development, which in 2019 donated farmland in Tin Shui Wai to build the first Light Village of new 100 homes, set to open in 2022.

Yu is also a member of the Town Planning Board, a director of the Urban Renewal Fund and a member of the Transport Advisory Committee.