ENG-2015 — Page 223

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Housing

Rent Policy

The Housing Authority's long-established policy is to set PRH rents at affordable levels. Its rents. include rates, management and maintenance costs, and ranged from $315 to $4,264 per month as at December, with the average being about $1,700. The rent adjustment mechanism is based on changes in tenants' overall household incomes. PRH rent reviews are conducted every two years and the next review will be conducted in mid-2016.

Rent Assistance

The Housing Authority's Rent Assistance Scheme offers rent cuts of 25 or 50 per cent to tenants facing temporary financial difficulties. As at end-December, about 15,300 households were recipients.

Better-off Tenants

Better-off tenants are required to pay higher rents. At the end of December, about 22,900 households were paying higher rents. Tenants who have lived in public housing estates for 10 years or more have to declare their household incomes every two years. Those with household incomes exceeding the prescribed income limits set by the Housing Authority or who choose not to declare their incomes have to pay additional rent. Households with total household income and net assets both exceeding the prescribed income and asset limits, or are paying double rent and choose not to declare their household assets, are required to move out.

Estate Clearance

The clearance of Long Bin Interim Housing in Yuen Long involved the moving out of about 850 people from 504 families. By December 2015, about 840 people from 500 families were rehoused or moved out.

Sustainable Public Housing Stock

The Housing Authority adopts a life-cycle maintenance strategy to keep its public housing stock economically, socially and environmentally sound. Since the launch of the Total Maintenance Scheme in 2006, it has checked and made minor repairs or improvements on the spot to some 797,000 flats, with 59,000 flats in 39 estates checked in 2015.

Estates around 40 years old are monitored under the Comprehensive Structural Investigation Programme to ensure they are safe and economically sustainable. Two other schemes, the Estate Improvement Programme and Lift Addition Programme, seek to provide a good living environment and enhance pedestrian access within estates, respectively.

Allocation

In 2015, about 21,400 PRH flats were allocated for rehousing purposes. About 9,300 of these were new flats and about 12,100 were refurbished flats. Of the total, about 14,300 were allocated to general applicants and non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS, and about 4,600 to existing tenants for various types of transfers. The rest were allocated to other miscellaneous categories such as applicants for Compassionate Rehousing and families who are affected by the government's clearance actions, fire, natural disasters and emergencies.

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