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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
Three more hygiene-related misdeeds will be added to the "Marking Scheme for Tenancy Enforcement in Public Rental Housing (PRH) Estates" (Marking Scheme) to strengthen the punitive edge of the scheme for stronger deterrent effects.
Members of the Housing Authority's Subsidised Housing Committee endorsed a series of new measures to enhance the effectiveness of the scheme at its meeting today (October 26). These new measures will take effect on January 1, 2006.
The additional misdeeds are:
(a) Smoke or carry a lighted cigarette in public lift (5 points);
(b) Illegal hawking of cooked food (7 points);
(c) Throwing objects from height that may cause danger or personal injury (15 points). "Throwing objects from height that jeopardise environmental hygiene" will still be allotted with 7 points.
The HD will consider terminating the tenancy immediately if the tenant who engaged in unscrupulous act of throwing object(s) from height has caused casualties.
"Ex-tenants whose tenancies have been terminated under the Marking Scheme will be barred from applying for public rental housing through the General Waiting List for two years from the date of termination of previous tenancy," the committee chairman, Mr Ng Shui-lai, said.
"They will not be offered a flat of better quality, in respect of geographical locality, age of building and floor level, upon rehousing," he said, adding that cases with special or compassionate considerations could apply for these restrictions to be lifted with approval from the Assistant Director/Estate Management.
"As community involvement is a critical success factor, an incentive award scheme will be introduced to solicit tenants' support," Mr Ng said.
"The top three most hygienic public housing estates will be publicised in Estate Newsletters and souvenirs will be given on monthly basis as recognition of their achievements.
"A trophy will be awarded to the Mutual Aid Committee of the cleanest block of every housing estate on an annual basis," he said.
Funding support of around $3 million per year from the Estate Management Advisory Committee Central Reserve Fund for regional programmes will be apportioned to every public housing estate for organising the "Operation Tai Ping Tei".
Introduced in August, 2003, the Marking Scheme was last reviewed in November, 2004, when 20 hygiene-related misdeeds were included. After the current review, there will be 23 misdeeds, categorised into four groups by their degree of adversity to the living environment with 3, 5, 7 and 15 points to be deducted. When 16 points have been allotted to a household within two years, the subject tenancy will be terminated.
As at end of September this year, 3,921 allotments of penalty points involving 3,233 households had been recorded. Of them, 80 households or 2.47% have accumulated 10 points or more due to committing two or more misdeeds.
"Littering" - with 3,058 cases reported and - "Spitting in public areas" (727 cases) continued to be the most frequently committed offences.
Four households had been allotted 16 points and Notices-to-Quit (NTQ) were issued to these families. All of them have appealed to the Appeal Board. For two households, the Appeal Board ruled that their NTQ could be cancelled if they did not commit further misdeeds within a specified period of time. The NTQ for one household has been confirmed and another is still pending appeal hearing.
Findings of Public Housing Recurrent Surveys revealed that the scheme had achieved sustained improvement in environmental hygiene of public housing estates. Tenants' satisfaction over estate cleanliness increased from 51.2% in 2003 to 64.3% in 2005. Some 76% of the tenants believe that the marking scheme can improve the cleanliness of public housing estates.
The number of complaints on cleaning, hygiene and nuisance-related matters dropped by 64% from 795 in the second quarter of 2003 to 287 in the first quarter of 2005.
Ends/Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Issued at HKT 16:48
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