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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, in the Legislative Council today (July 8):
Question:
Some organisations have relayed to me that members of the public currently encounter much difficulty in applying for and awaiting allocation of public rental housing (PRH) units. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the numbers of PRH units allocated to non-elderly one-person applicants by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) in each of the past three years;
(b) of the respective numbers of applicants on the PRH Waiting List (WL) at the end of each of the past three years and at present, broken down by their age groups (i.e. 18 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 or above) and, among them, the numbers of non-elderly one-person applicants;
(c) of the respective numbers of non-elderly one-person applicants on PRH WL at the end of each of the past three years and at present, broken down by their education levels (i.e. primary, junior secondary, senior secondary and matriculated, post secondary, bachelor's degree, master's degree or above);
(d) of the respective numbers of PRH units allocated to non-elderly one-person applicants in each of the past three years and the first half of this year, broken down by the waiting time concerned (i.e. less than one year, one to two years, from over two years to three years, over three years);
(e) of the numbers of single-person PRH units recovered by HA in each of the past three years;
(f) of the respective numbers of single-person PRH units the construction of which had been commenced and completed in each of the past three years; and the numbers of single-person PRH units which will be provided by HA in each of the coming five years;
(g) of the numbers of cases in which single-person applicants on PRH WL switched to applications for families in each of the past three years; and
(h) what justifications were used by HA when it set the criteria for determining the points scored by non-elderly one-person applicants under the points system?
Reply:
President,
The Housing Authority (HA) introduced the Quota and Points System for Non-elderly One-person Applicants (QPS) in September 2005 to rationalise and re-prioritise the allocation of public rental housing (PRH) to non-elderly one-person applicants. QPS was introduced to address the problem brought about by a dramatic upsurge in the number of non-elderly individuals applying for PRH on their own. The problem, if unchecked, would greatly undermine the HA's ability to provide housing assistance to families in greater need. Just like other Waiting List (WL) applicants, non-elderly one-person applicants may apply for the Express Flat Allocation Scheme (EFAS) and those with a pressing need for housing may also apply for compassionate rehousing through recommendations by the Social Welfare Department.
My reply to the eight parts of the question is as below:
(a) Over the past three years, the number of PRH flats allocated to non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS were 1,323 units in 2006/07, 1,593 units in 2007/08 and 1,991 units in 2008/09. Besides, over 1,000 non-elderly one-person applicants were rehoused to PRH through the EFAS and compassionate rehousing per year over the past three years. Therefore, in the past three years, around a total of 3,000 non-elderly one-person applicants were rehoused to PRH per year.
(b) The age distribution of overall WL applicants and those under the QPS over the past three years and at present is as below (please refer to attachment table 1);
(c) According to the findings of the Survey on WL Applicants for PRH, the distribution of non-elderly one-person applicants in terms of education level over the past three years is as below (please refer to attachment table 2);
(d) The distribution of applicants under the QPS in terms of the waiting time from submission of applications to PRH allocation in the past three years and at present is as below (please refer to attachment table 3);
(e) & (f) The smallest PRH flats being constructed nowadays belong to the flat type of "1-2 person". At present, the HA does not build any units that are specifically designated for singletons only. Furthermore, apart from those Housing for Senior Citizen units which are no long under construction, the smallest units that the HA recovers are "1-2 person" flats. We are therefore unable to provide the requested information on "single-person PRH units" constructed and recovered by the HA per year. We will allocate the flats recovered to applicants/ households of appropriate sizes according to the allocation standard. Figures on flat allocation to one-person households in the past three years are provided for reference. In 2006/07, 27% of the total number of flats allocated were for one-person households. The respective figures for 2007/08 and 2008/09 were 27% and 23%.
(g) The number of one-person applicants switching to family applicants over the past three years were 5,400 cases in 2006/07, 3,200 cases in 2007/08 and 3,700 cases in 2008/09.
(h) The relative priorities for PRH allocation to applicants under the QPS are determined by the points they received. Points are assigned to the applicants on the basis of their age at the time of submitting the PRH applications, whether they are sitting PRH tenants and their waiting time. Three points would be assigned for applicants per age older when they submit the application. As PRH tenants are receiving public housing subsidies, they would be deducted 30 points. Besides, one additional point will be given for waiting on the WL for one more month.
Ends/Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Issued at HKT 13:01
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