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Following is a question by the Hon Alan Leong Kah-kit and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
I have recently received a letter seeking my assistance from a public rental housing (PRH) tenant who is serving a sentence of more than 12 months' imprisonment, expressing the worry that the Housing Department (HD) may recover his PRH unit during his imprisonment. Regarding HD's handling of the PRH units of tenants sentenced to imprisonment, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the tenancy eligibility of PRH households will be affected by some of their members being sentenced to imprisonment;
(2) whether payment of PRH rentals by singleton PRH tenants with financial difficulties may be waived during imprisonment; if so, of the public money involved in each of the past five years;
(3) of the circumstances under which HD will recover the PRH units from tenants sentenced to imprisonment; of the number of PRH units recovered from such tenants in each of the past five years; and
(4) of the circumstances under which HD will re-allocate PRH units to the discharged offenders, as well as their waiting time; whether HD will handle applications from the following categories of discharged offenders in a special manner: singleton elderly persons aged 65 or above, people with disabilities and recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Public rental housing (PRH) is a precious public resources involving substantial subsidy from the Government. To ensure maximal utilization of PRH resources, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) puts in place the Letter of Assurance (LA) mechanism. In case any singleton PRH tenants who need to serve a relatively long term imprisonment (normally three months or more), the Housing Department (HD) will liaise with the tenants concerned proactively and advise them to terminate the tenancies voluntarily and surrender their flats. HD will issue a LA to them undertaking that upon their discharge, they could be offered a PRH flat without queuing on the Waiting List (WL) should they still fulfill the relevant criteria. Subject to availability of PRH resources, the HD would allocate PRH flats to them as soon as practicable.
My reply to the four-part question of the Hon Alan Leong is as follows :
(1) If some of the authorized members (including the tenant himself/herself) listed in the Tenancy Agreement (TA) of a PRH unit are imprisoned in a correctional institution of the Correctional Services Department (CSD), according to the TA, the tenants should notify the HD of such changes in family circumstances as soon as possible. In accordance with the prevailing PRH policy, right of residence in the PRH unit of the imprisoned persons concerned will not be deprived because of the imprisonment. The HA will not recover the relevant PRH unit due to the imprisonment of some of the authorized members (including the tenant himself/ herself) listed in the TA of that unit.
(2) to (4) Generally speaking, unless the tenants concerned have defaulted in rent payment or abused the use of their flats, the HA will not issue Notice-to-quit (NTQ) to recover their flats due to their imprisonment. For singleton tenants who are receiving Comprehensive Social Security Allowance and subject to short term imprisonment (normally less than three months), the HD will, having learnt about the situation, liaise with the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to allow for continued transfer of the rental payment to the HA's account direct. As mentioned above, for singleton tenants who are being imprisoned for a longer period (normally three months or above), the HD will liaise with the tenants concerned proactively and advise them to terminate the tenancies voluntarily and surrender their flats. HD will issue them a LA, undertaking that upon their discharge, if they still meet the relevant criteria (including income and asset limits applicable to the PRH WL applicants and the requirement of not owning any domestic property in Hong Kong), they could exercise the rights in the LA and be offered a PRH flat without the need to queue up on the WL again. Subject to availability of PRH resources, the HD would allocate PRH flats to them as soon as practicable.
If PRH tenants (irrespective of whether they are imprisoned or not) have defaulted in rent payment or abused the use of their flats, the HA will issue NTQ to recover the flats in accordance with the clauses of the TA. On par with other PRH applicants, imprisoned persons who are eligible for PRH may apply for PRH via the CSD when they are serving their sentences. However, the period of their imprisonment will not be counted in the average waiting time (AWT) (note). Upon their discharge, subject to the availability of resources, they will be offered a PRH flat when their PRH applications are due for detailed vetting and if they meet the eligibility criteria. Discharged persons may also consider living in transitional hostels provided by non-governmental organizations. Moreover, discharged persons with pressing housing needs may apply to the SWD for Compassionate Rehousing on medical and social grounds for early rehousing.
The HD does not maintain records on the amount of rental paid by imprisoned tenants or the number of PRH flats recovered from imprisoned tenants.
Note: It is the Government's policy objective to provide PRH to low-income families who cannot afford private rental accommodation. The HA's target is to maintain the AWT at around three years for general applicants of the WL. Under the established methodology, waiting time refers to the time taken between registration on the WL and the first unit offer, excluding any frozen period during the application period (e.g. the imprisonment of applicants; when the applicant has not yet fulfilled the residence requirement; the applicant has to put his/her application on hold pending arrival of members for family reunion). The AWT for general applicants refers to the average of the waiting time of general applicants housed to PRH in the past 12 months.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Issued at HKT 11:46
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