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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
As an ongoing effort to enhance building sustainability and address safety concerns of tenants, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA)'s Subsidised Housing Committee today (February 13) decided to replace laundry pole holders with laundry racks free of charge in rental flats of public rental housing estates and unsold rental flats of Tenants Purchase Scheme estates, subject to the preferences of the tenants concerned.
"The HA will conduct a survey of all tenants in about 510 000 rental flats with laundry pole holders on whether they will opt for a new rack. Racks will be provided to those opting for installation. The first survey batch will start in April 2014," a spokesman for the HA said, adding that the HA will also take care of necessary future maintenance works of the new racks under the enhancement programme.
"For tenants who do not opt for a new rack, the pole holders will be sealed up to avoid further use," the spokesman said. "Installation of racks for all elderly families and disabled tenants, as appropriate, would be handled with priority according to the current policy."
The two types of stainless steel racks currently adopted by the Housing Department (HD) in existing public rental flats will be used for the enhancement programme. The parallel-type design will be the first choice. If the space of the re-entrant areas at the facades does not permit installation of this type of rack, the perpendicular type will be used.
As for existing racks installed by tenants or by the HA under the past subsidy scheme, in cases in which the tenants do not opt for new rack installation the existing racks will be replaced or repaired by the HA depending on their condition in the future.
"Laundry racks or rods installed by tenants at other approved locations like outside the living room facade of Harmony-type blocks will continue to be maintained by tenants at their own cost," the spokesman added.
To cope with the large volume of works, the HD will prioritise the estates for replacements based on the elderly population, the estate redecoration programme and estate block types, as well as distribution of the workload.
"While the provision of laundry racks is an enhancement of estate facilities addressing the safety concerns of tenants, tenants are reminded to be careful to ensure safety when using the facilities," the spokesman said.
Ends/Thursday, February 13, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:04
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