3
should be able to benefit several needy families in tandem during
Life tenancies with succession would the life span of the building.
mean more and more public housing blocks have to be built and it would be a heavy burden on public finance and much longer waiting time for the needy. I hope that the softer tactic of increasing rent could replace eviction.
From a social and better turn-over point of view, elderly singletons should be given higher priority in public housing.
Declaration of Income, Property etc.
This should not be plain declarations, I recommend that the tenants be required to make statutory declaration which will
There are many places in have a stronger psychological effect.
Like in the Labour which such statutory declarations could be made. Department, suitable officers have been empowered to administer oaths in statutory declarations for claims on wages owed in insolvency cases. Housing Department officers may be similarly empowered which would give them some authority when dealing with false declarations.
Fallacious Arguments
If one does not take a firm line or keep the computation formula simple and readily understood by the public, pressure groups could mislead the public and make political capital out of it by making tenants believe in the magic of getting ownership out of nothing. It would turn all the good work done by the Government
Free land, through the Housing Authority into suspicous deeds. depreciated return of capital, unrecoverable token interest, much-lower-than-market rent and prices etc. would all be discounted or ignored and public funds spent would be like some 'foreign aid" given to underdeveloped countries in return for hatred.