Housing for the Elderly: New Horizons

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Following is a speech (English only) by the Deputy Secretary for Housing, Ms Elaine Chung Lai-kwok at the International Conference on Housing for the Elderly today (October 12):

Professor Chi, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

"Housing for the Elderly: New Horizons"

First of all, I would like to extend my welcome to all delegates, especially those who have travelled from far away places to Hong Kong to attend this Conference. In a world still reeling from the after-shocks of the terrorist attacks, we are particularly appreciative of your effort to come to Hong Kong. Your attendance is sending a message to us that in an age of telephony, video-conferencing and the Internet, face-to-face communications are still valued.

With so much talk nowadays about vulnerability and security, it is perhaps fitting for us to gather here to discuss the concept of a comfortable and safe home for a special group - the elderly.

Hong Kong's public housing programme

As many of you may know, our public housing programme has, in the last 50 years, transformed Hong Kong. We have significant successes and our share of problems. The successes are:

(a) A 42% drop in the number of inadequately housed households, despite a steady stream of legal immigrants of 150 a day.

(b) Substantially reducing the waiting time for public rental housing from 7 years in 1997 to 4 years now. This will be further reduced to 3 years by 2003.

(c) We spent in the last 5 years 11% to 19% of our total public expenditure annually on housing. This percentage is higher than those for other countries in the world for which I have figures.

The result is that we have provided or assisted the relatively less well-off 50% of the community in Hong Kong to have a decent home.

In April this year, I made a presentation at a formal hearing of the United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. In its report, the UN commended Hong Kong for its achievements in rehousing its citizens. This commendation, from an organisation of such high stature, has given us much encouragement.

What the commendation has not done is put us in a complacent mood. For those who know us well, Hong Kong is a strongly self-critical society. The essence of a free society is that its citizens disagree strenuously about things which matter. And housing does matter. It is a very significant and very tangible benefit. We ourselves in the Government know that there are areas where we can improve our services, of which housing for the elderly is one.

Profile of the Elderly in Hong Kong

With one of the longest life spans in the world, Hong Kong's elderly population is growing fast. There are currently more than 1 million persons aged 60 or above in Hong Kong, representing 15% of our population of 6.8 million. The percentage of elderly persons is expected to rise to 20% by 2016.

Hong Kong, despite being a bastion of capitalism, is also a caring society, with the Government providing a very significant safety net. These include Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, greatly subsidised public housing and health services, educational, community and recreational programmes. Since the Honourable Tam Yiu Chung has already covered these issues in his speech, I shall not go into detail again.

As for housing, 57% of our 1 million senior citizens aged 60 and above benefit from the Government's public housing schemes. 42% live in public rental estates and 15% live in subsidised ownership flats, making a total of 581,300 persons. The remaining 43% of elderly population, i.e. 436,000 persons, are living in private housing.

We have 3 main organisations involved in housing. The Housing Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government is responsible for all housing policies in the public and private sectors. Public sector policies are implemented by two agents. They are the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society. The chairmen of both organisations are in the audience today.

As regards policies, the central tenet in our housing policy is that the Government only subsidises those who cannot afford to rent or buy private sector flats. Access to subsidised housing is strictly controlled by formulae which go up and down in tandem with private housing rentals and prices and the cost of non housing expenditure.

Elderly Housing: new aims and approaches

In Hong Kong, elderly households who have the most serious housing needs include 19,500 households living in rooms or cubicle units, and 3,700 households living in bedspaces or cocklofts or what we call non-residential quarters. We seek to improve the housing conditions of these households by 7 approaches:

(a) increased supply;

(b) priority access to public housing;

(d) rental subsidies;

(e) lease for life

(f) private sector participation; and

(g) provision of information on public housing.

(a) Increased supply

We have two major pledges. We have promised to rehouse all elderly persons who register before March this year by the end of 2003. We have also promised to reduce the average waiting time of elderly singletons to two years by 2005. As I said, in 1997, the average waiting time before flat allocation was 7 years. Based on our projections there will be an average annual demand of 7,400 units for elderly housing in the public and private sectors between 1999-2000 to 2008-2009. To meet the demand, the Housing Authority will supply some 30,000 public rental housing flats (or 6,000 per year), including new and refurbished ones, in the coming five years from 2000-2001 to 2004-2005.

(b) Priority access to public housing

The goal of reducing waiting time is also achieved through the operation of priority schemes. Some of these schemes are also specially designed to encourage the younger generation to live with and take care of the elderly, which is in line with traditional Chinese thinking. These schemes are -

(i) Elderly Persons Priority Scheme

For two or more elderly persons, the average waiting time for flat allocation is two years.

(ii) Families with Elderly Persons Priority Scheme

For families living together with their elderly dependants aged 60 or above, they are allocated flats three years before normal allocation in the district of their choice.

(iii) Special Scheme for Families with Elderly Persons

For young families who are willing to take care of their parents, but prefer to have separate flats in the same block, allocation is normally made two years in advance of normal turn.

We also have 2 schemes for subsidised sale flats -

(iv) Home Ownership Scheme (HOS)

Under the Home Ownership Scheme introduced in 1978, flats are built by the Housing Authority and sold at discounted price to eligible low-income families. For elderly households, they enjoy priority of flat selection under the Scheme.

(v) Home Purchase Loan Scheme (HPLS)

Under this Scheme, interest free loans are offered to eligible low-income families to acquire accommodation in the private sector. Elderly households also enjoy priority under the Scheme.

So far, about 71,000 households have benefited from different kinds of Housing Authority's priority schemes.

The Housing Authority provides two kinds of elderly housing -

(a) hostel-type accommodation with round the clock warden service. The size of hostel ranges from about 6 sq. metres for one person to 14 sq. metres for 2-persons. Tenants have to share common families like bathroom and kitchen. The number of such units is almost 10 000;

(b) small self-contained flats. The Housing Authority will focus its efforts to building 30 000 self-contained flats in the coming five years (2001/02 - 2005/06). The Housing Society also operates 900 Elderly Persons Flats ranging from 16 sq.m. to 37 sq.m. for one to three persons.

Most of the elderly housing units are specially designed for senior citizens to cater for their needs. I shall not go into details as a senior architect of the Housing Department will elaborate on this this afternoon. To avoid the need for conversion as tenants age, the Housing Authority will improve the design of all its new developments so that they are transgenerational i.e. the changing needs of residents, as they age, can be taken care of.

(d) Rental subsidies

In the past, housing needs are met by a "bricks and mortar" approach. To provide elderly persons more choices of accommodation in the private sector, the Housing Authority has launched a pilot Rent Allowance for Elderly Scheme in August this year. The scheme is particularly welcome to senior citizens who live in neighbourhoods which have no subsidised housing for those who want a specific type of housing. The scheme is in line with the principle of "Ageing in Place".

(e) Lease for life

As regards senior citizens who belong to a slightly higher income bracket, the Government has devised the Senior Citizen Residence Scheme, 2 pilot projects of which will be undertaken by the Housing Society. The purpose-built accommodation with comprehensive and integrated care services is designed to accommodate senior citizens with some savings on a "Lease for Life" basis. This is a new concept for Hong Kong.

(f) Private sector participation

The Housing Bureau is currently developing a pilot scheme based on the integration of care and support and accommodation in line with the concept of "continuum of care".

(g) Provision of information on public housing

To provide information to eligible elderly households, particularly the 17,000 low income elderly families still living in non self-contained private flats, the Housing Authority has set up six Housing Information Centres at various districts. Staff in these Centres provide assistance to senior citizens, advise them on how to apply for public housing and even fill in forms for them. Credit should also go to our dedicated non Government organisations (NGOs) who organise outreach teams and briefings to encourage and assist elderly persons to apply for public housing.

Conclusion

Housing for the elderly is both a necessity and a challenge for a compassionate and caring society. The changing characteristics and expectations of society generate new demands of housing for the elderly, both in terms of quality and quantity. Obviously, housing for the elderly presents a new horizon for both Hong Kong and modern countries worldwide. With all the schemes which I have just described, our senior citizens, whatever their means and state of health and personal preferences, can be assured of a comfortable life. For the elderly as well as for the community as a whole : ageing should have an active and positive outlook.

This Conference provides all of us with a forum for a fruitful exchange, for sharing, learning and for exploration of new ideas. I am sure we'll all benefit from it. Thank you.

End/Friday, October 12, 2001

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