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Following is a question by the Hon James TO and an oral reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (November 29):
Question:
According to the existing housing policy, public housing applicants should not own or co-own any domestic property. In case of divorce, neither party is eligible to apply for public housing if either of them does not wish to pursue the process of transferring the title of their property which has been registered as co-owned property in the Land Registry. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the assistance provided by the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") to such divorced couples in finding accommodation to live separately; the respective numbers of cases in the past three years in which SWD has succeeded in helping such persons to find accommodation and those in which it has failed to do so; and among the latter cases, of the number of those in which domestic disputes and violence have taken place;
(b) whether the Director of Housing ("D of H") can exercise discretion to allow divorced persons who fail to resolve the problem of property ownership to apply for or be accommodated in public housing; if he can, of the respective numbers of cases in the past three years in which D of H has exercised his discretion to allow such persons to lease public housing units on normal tenancy terms or on conditional terms, or to apply for public housing; and the respective numbers of cases in which such persons were not allowed to lease public housing units on normal tenancy terms or on conditional terms, or to apply for public housing; and
(c) whether the Housing Department will consider amending the eligibility criteria for applying for public housing to allow divorced persons who cannot obtain the title to the properties concerned under court decrees to apply for public housing even if the transfer of title is still in progress, so as to help divorced persons who have not sought assistance from SWD to resolve their accommodation problems if they are to live separately from their spouses, so as to prevent serious domestic disputes or violence?
Reply:
Madam President,
Basically, a person in possession of domestic property is not eligible for applying for public rental housing. In the case of a divorce, even if the party concerned in possession of domestic properties has not yet completed the divorce proceedings or had their title registration deleted, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) may, under special circumstances, recommend to the Housing Authority (HA) for providing him/her with public housing under the Conditional Tenancy mechanism under the Compassionate Rehousing policy. My reply to Hon James To¡¦s question is as follows :
(a) The SWD will conduct an in-depth examination of the family background and financial conditions of divorced persons seeking assistance and make a full assessment of their welfare needs. Depending on the actual circumstances of individual cases, appropriate services will be provided, e.g. short-term financial relief for the persons concerned to meet rental and home moving expenses, or temporary dwelling in urban singleton hostels managed by voluntary organisations. However, the SWD has not maintained any separate records of cases where accommodation arrangements for such divorced persons have been provided.
(b) We have also utilised public housing resources to help the people in need as mentioned above. As I have mentioned in my opening remarks, the SWD may recommend to the HA for providing public rental housing under the Conditional Tenancy mechanism under the Compassionate Rehousing policy to divorced persons or those in the process of divorcing, who have genuine and urgent housing needs but lacking the ability to address the needs themselves, and who are in possession of domestic properties.
The HA has not maintained any separate records of applications for Conditional Tenancies from such divorced persons. In response to Hon James To¡¦s enquiry, the HA has checked its case files and found that there are 28 cases in which divorced persons in possession of domestic properties have been granted Conditional Tenancies since 2003/04.
(c) The existing eligibility criteria for public rental housing are able to cater for the people in need in society. The Conditional Tenancy mechanism is there to provide appropriate assistance to the above-mentioned divorced persons. The HA will continue to work closely with the SWD to arrange public housing accommodation promptly for those divorced persons in possession of domestic properties so as to help address their imminent accommodation problems.
Ends/Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:12
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