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Following is a question by the Hon Law Chi-kwong and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Housing, Ms Elaine LK Chung, in the Legislative Council today (May 17):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the number of elderly persons who are sharing the same public housing unit or part of the facilities inside a unit with unrelated persons, together with a breakdown by housing estate and by the mode of sharing;

(b) the respective numbers of applications for transfer by such elderly tenants and approvals granted in the past three years; and

(c) the criteria adopted by the Social Welfare Department for deciding whether to recommend the transfers to the Housing Department?

Reply

Madam President,

(a) As at April1, 2000, the numbers of elderly persons sharing the same public housing unit or the facilities inside a public housing unit with unrelated persons was 6,071. This figure can be broken down as follows:-

Single elderly tenants living in converted-one-person flats with shared toilets and balcony facilities - 3,165

Elderly persons sharing the same public housing units with unrelated persons - 2,906

The Housing Department does not at present have a breakdown of the above figures by housing estate. The information will be provided to the Hon Law Chi-kwong and the Legislative Council as soon as possible.

(b) The number of applications for transfer and the number of approvals for transfer granted to elderly tenants in the past three years are as follows :-

                               1997      1998    1999


Applications for           306        371     395

transfer by elderly 

tenants 

Approvals for                40         48      68

transfer granted to

elderly tenants 

(c) The Social Welfare Department considers each application for transfer on compassionate grounds on its own merits, taking into account special social and medical reasons as well as problems of the elderly applicant that cannot be resolved by means other than transfer to another public rental housing flat.

End/Wednesday, May 17, 2000

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