Housing 225
Rent Assistance
The Rent Assistance Scheme (RAS) was introduced by the HKHA in 1992 to help public housing tenants facing temporary financial difficulties. Currently, eligible tenants are offered rent cuts of 25 or 50 per cent. Families living in newer blocks. are required to live in them for a period of two years before becoming eligible to apply for assistance. As at December 2011, about 11 900 households were receiving RAS.
Better-off Tenants
Under existing policy, better-off tenants are required to pay higher rents. At the end of December, about 24 100 households were paying higher rents. Tenants who have lived in public housing estates for more than 10 years have to move out if their household incomes and assets have exceeded the Subsidy Income Limits and Net Assets Limits set by the HKHA. Those who choose not to declare their household assets have to surrender their flats to the HKHA.
Estate Clearance
So Uk Estate's Phase 2 clearance is scheduled to be completed in April 2012, requiring some 6 500 people from 2 400 families to move out. About 3 700 people from 1 400 families were rehoused by the end of December 2011. Clearance of Block 22, Tung Tau (1) Estate, which started in January 2008, will be completed in June 2012. Some 1 500 people from 900 families would need to be rehoused. About 280 people from 270 families were rehoused by the end of December 2011.
Sustainable Public Housing Stock
The HKHA adopts a life-cycle maintenance strategy to keep its public housing stock economically, socially and environmentally stable. Under its 'Total Maintenance Scheme' introduced in 2006, Inspection Ambassadors carry out flat checks and make arrangements on the spot for minor repairs or improvements to flats. Repairs and improvements were made to 177 estates in the first cycle. Similar improvements had been made to 28 estates in the first year of the second cycle, which was launched in 2011.
Estates over, or approaching, 40 years old are monitored under a HKHA Comprehensive Structural Investigation Programme to ensure they are safe to live in and are economically sustainable. The programme is under way and investigations into 18 estates have been completed.
The HKHA has an ongoing 'Estate Improvement Programme' for providing quality service and a good living environment for its tenants. It also has a lift installation programme for improving accessibility in the external areas as well as in the buildings that have no lifts.
Allocation
In 2011, about 30 300 public rental housing flats were allocated to various rehousing categories by the HKHA and the HKHS. About 14 500 of these were new flats and about 15 800 were refurbished flats. Of these, about 63 per cent were allocated to applicants on the public rental housing waiting list, less than 1 per cent