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The following is issued on behalf of Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority (HA) will enhance enforcement against under-occupation in its public rental housing (PRH). This is the latest move of its on-going effort to rationalise the use of heavily subsidised public housing resources in a step-by-step approach.
The Authority's Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (October 15) endorsed to allot priority to resolve the 3,000 serious cases with living density exceeding 34 square metres per person and without elderly or disabled family members in the coming two years starting November 1 this year.
Under HA's policy of under-occupation with prescribed standards, PRH households with excessive living space as a result of deletion of family members or for other reasons are required to move to another PRH flat of appropriate size.
Following a plan drawn up in 2007 to tackle the under-occupation problem in order of priorities, the Housing Department has resolved some 7,800 under-occupation cases. Among them, some 1,800 are most serious under-occupation cases with living density above 35 square metres per person, with a majority of them being one-person households living in two-bedroom flats.
"With on-going completion of new small PRH flats and recovery of small flats from out-going tenants, we are now in a position to deal with more serious under-occupation cases in order to recover more large flats for re-allocation to families on the Waiting List," a spokesman for the HA said.
Concerned households will continue to be offered incentives to move out of the flat including a total of four housing offers in the residing estates or estates in the same District Council constituency, Domestic Removal Allowance and opportunity for transfer to new estates, subject to availability of resources.
"For those most serious under-occupation households who refuse all the four offers unreasonably, a notice to quit will be issued," the spokesman said.
Noting the special needs of under-occupation households with elderly or disabled members, the SHC also decided to continue to accord lower priority in arranging transfer for these households.
The overall situation of under-occupation will be reviewed after two years.
Ends/Friday, October 15, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:59
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