206 Housing
The HKHA also offers accommodation to people whose squatter huts or illegal rooftop structures are cleared by the Government, provided they meet certain conditions. About 250 people, made homeless by squatter and rooftop clearances, were rehoused in 2008.
Home Ownership
Sale of Subsidised Flats
More than 458 1005 subsidised sale flats have been sold in past years to eligible households at discounted prices under different Government subsidised programmes. such as the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS)/the Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) and the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) run by the HKHA. But these schemes were scrapped in recent years in line with the Government's subsidised housing policy of focusing its resources on the provision of assistance to low-income families. who cannot afford private rental accommodation.
To dispose of the remaining 16 700 HOS flats, the HKHA drew up a tentative sales plan in 2006 to put HOS flats up for sale at intervals over a period of three years, starting from 2007, with between 2 000 and 3 000 flats offered each time. Four such sales, involving about 12 600 flats, took place between 2007 and 2008.
Housing for Groups in Special Need
The Chief Executive pledged in his Policy Address that the family would be promoted as a core social value and that the elderly would be given special care. This aim is reflected in the HKHA's allocation and management of public rental housing.
For an elderly person who wishes to live alone, he/she can do so by applying for a public rental housing flat under the Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme. Two or more unrelated elderly persons can also apply for the Elderly Persons Priority Scheme if they wish to live together.
The HKHA has also shortened the average waiting time for public rental housing for single elderly applicants to 1.2 years.
To encourage families to live with and to take care of their elderly relatives in public rental housing estates, the HKHA gave the go-ahead in October 2008 to further enhance the arrangement by replacing the prevailing schemes with the 'Harmonious Families Priority Scheme' which will go into effect on January 1, 2009.
Housing Supply
Some 35 200 residential units were completed in 2008, of these, about 8 800 were private housing flats (excluding village houses) and 26 400 public housing flats.
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Including flats sold by the HKHS. Of the 458 100 flats sold since 1978, about 63 800 flats can be traded in the open market as at end-December 2008. These flats are not counted as subsidised sale flats under the current definition.