Purpose

Members were briefed on the rehousing policy for clearees of Temporary Housing Areas (THAs) on 4 January 1999. (Please refer to the information paper at Annex.) This paper elaborates on the implementation details of this policy.

The Policy

2. All residents moving into THAs after 23 September 1995 have to register on the Waiting List. They will be allocated public rental housing flats only when their Waiting List applications mature in respect of the waiting time and choice of district. If their Waiting List applications have yet to mature at the time of clearance, they will only be rehoused to interim housing. The objective of the policy is to eliminate the possibility of queue-jumping and to ensure rational allocation of public housing resources.

Eligibility of Former Residents of Unauthorized Building/Rooftop Structures

3. Similar to the other clearees, THA residents previously affected by demolition of unauthorized rooftop structures with Notice of Intention (NOI) issued on or before 23 September 1995 would be eligible for public rental housing upon future clearance of the THA. The date of serving the Statutory Order is not the clearance announcement date since the Statutory Order is only a reminder to the owners of the unauthorized structures to demolish the structures and to remove the affected occupants. The Housing Department would start registration/vetting to determine the rehousing eligibility of the affected occupants when the Buildings Department serves NOI to apply for a Closure Order. The affected occupants would be offered public housing, including interim housing, according to their eligibility.

Eligibility of Ex-tenants of Public Housing Estates

4. Former public housing tenants moving into THA after 23 September 1995 resulting from divorce, splitting of tenancy, unauthorised occupation etc., would not be eligible for direct offer of public rental housing upon clearance of the THA except through matured Waiting List applications.

Notification Period for Clearance

5. Normally all affected households will be notified individually by written clearance notice at least nine months before the target evacuation date. Thus they are given sufficient time to arrange for removal. For instance, clearance of Kwai Shun and Kwai Lok THAs was announced in July 1998 with tentative evacuation date scheduled for June 1999.

Clear Explanation of Rehousing Eligibility before Admission to THAs

6. The Housing Authority explains clearly to all households before admission into THAs their rehousing eligibility upon future clearance. The application forms for THAs state clearly that the THA residents are "not eligible for direct offer of public rental housing except through the General Waiting List".

7. At the time of intake, the households are requested to sign a declaration form reminding them that they have to register on the General Waiting List and would only be allocated public rental housing flats when their Waiting List applications mature. If at the time of clearance their Waiting List applications have not yet matured, they would only be rehoused to another interim housing unit.

Interim Housing

8. Interim housing provides accommodation for people who are rendered homeless for one reason or another and are not eligible for permanent public housing. To meet the demand from the community for interim accommodation, the Housing Authority has converted old public rental blocks, including Block 12 of Kwai Shing East and Blocks 10 & 11 of Shek Lei (2) Estate, into interim housing ⁽¹⁾ .

9. In view of the continuous and increasing demand for interim housing, the Housing Authority has undertaken to develop prefabricated interim housing and vertical interim housing. The prefabricated interim housing block at Sha Kok Mei in Sai Kung providing 144 units was open for intake in April 1998. The first vertical interim housing project at Tuen Mun Area 29 will be completed in early 2000. They are quality high-rise blocks which would provide spacious units for those who require accommodation but are not immediately eligible for public rental housing.


Housing Department
March 1999

Annex
(submitted at the
meeting of
4 January 1999)

Purpose

This paper informs Members of the rehousing policy for clearees of Temporary Housing Areas (THAs).

Background

2. THAs, an early form of interim housing, provide accommodation for those who are rendered homeless for one reason or another but are not immediately eligible for permanent public housing. Since these THAs comprise old-type low-rise timber structures, the living environment is not satisfactory. Over the years the Government has been making efforts to improve the living environment of the residents. Briefly, we have cleared all the pre-1984 THAs, and made rehousing offer to all households (39,000 persons) living in THAs in September 1995 by the end of 1997
^{(Note 1)} .

3. The Government has pledged in the 1997 Policy Address to clear the remaining old-style THAs by 2000 by rehousing eligible clearees in public housing, including interim housing ^{(Note 2)}, in order to improve the living conditions of those affected and to free land for development. Six of these THAs have now been cleared. The remaining 12 THAs, with a population of about 13,000 persons, will be cleared before the end of 2000. The clearance programme is at Annex I.

Rehousing Policy

(A) THA residents who moved in on or before 23 September 1995 and THA residents who were affected by clearance operations with announcement dates on or before 23 September 1995 but were subsequently rehoused to THAs

4. To be eligible for public rental housing upon clearance, these residents are required to fulfil the following criteria-

1. they must be authorized residents registered with the Housing Department under a license;
   
   
2. they must be in genuine residence at the affected THA units;
   
   
3. they must not own any domestic property, or have entered into any agreement for the purchase of any domestic property, nor have they disposed of any such property within 24 months before the date of announcement of clearance; and
   
   
4. they must not have purchased a flat under the various subsidised housing schemes.

(B) THA residents who moved in after 23 September 1995

5. These residents are required to register on the Waiting List for public rental housing. If their Waiting List applications have yet to mature at the time of clearance, they will be offered another interim housing unit. If their Waiting List applications mature at the time of clearance, they will be offered public rental housing units if they can fulfil the prevailing eligibility criteria, including the income-cum-asset test. If they fail to meet the criteria, they will be offered interim housing as they may still have a temporary housing need. However, their stay in interim housing will be restricted to one year only and they will be required to pay license fees equivalent to market rent of the premises. During this period, they will be given priority for the purchase of Home Ownership Scheme / Private Sector Participation Scheme flats or the grant of loan under the Home Purchase Loan Scheme if they meet the normal eligibility criteria as if they were White Form applicants.

6. The purpose of the policy is to ensure fair allocation of public housing resources. To eliminate the possibility of queue-jumping and to ensure equity in the allocation of public housing resources, the Housing Authority endorsed the policy on 23 September 1995 that all THA residents who moved in thereafter should register on the Waiting List. They would be allocated public rental flats only when their Waiting List applications mature.

Removal Allowance

7. All THA clearees are entitled to prevailing domestic ex-gratia removal allowances as set out in Annex II.


Housing Department
December 1998

Annex I

Clearance Program of Temporary Housing Areas (THAs)

Name of THA	Estimated no. of blocks	Estimated no. of households	Estimated no. of persons	Date of complete site clearance (tentative)	Major reception estate (Anticipated completion date)
A. Structures to be cleared by the Government
Tsing On	6	153	399	December 1999	Lei Muk Shue & Kwai Shing East Estates, Kwai Chung (January 1999 and May 1999)
Kai Lok	46	667	1901	April 2000	Tsz Ching Estate, Tsz Wan Shan (May 1999)
Kai Wo	10	150	376	April 2000	Tsz Ching Estate, Tsz Wan Shan (May 1999)
Kai Yiu	11	144	423	April 2000	Tsz Ching Estate, Tsz Wan Shan (May 1999)
Sha Kok Mei	51	946	2359	May 2000	Sheung Tak Estate, Tseung Kwan O (January 1999)
Long Bin	15	503	920	October 2000	Tin Shui Wai Area 30 (October 1999)
Sub-total	139	2563	6378

Name of THA	Estimated no. of blocks	Estimated no. of households	Estimated no. of persons	Date of complete site clearance (tentative)	Major reception estate (Anticipated completion date)
B. Structures to be cleared by Housing Authority
Tsing Yan	63	718	2700	April 1999	Lei Muk Shue Estate, Kwai Chung (January 1999)
Kwai Shun	7	114	331	December 1999	Lei Muk Shue & Kwai Shing East Estates, Kwai Chung (January 1999 - May 1999)
Kwai Lok	9	118	305	December 1999	Lei Muk Shue & Kwai Shing East Estates, Kwai Chung (January 1999 - May 1999)
Tseung Kwan O	25	667	1511	May 2000	Sheung Tak Estate, Tseung Kwan O (January 1999)
Fat Tseung Street	38	444	1220	June 2000	Hoi Fu Estate, Mong Kok (September 1999)
Lung Ping Road	24	212	554	June 2000	Hoi Fu Estate, Mong Kok (September 1999)
Sub-total	166	2273	6621

Annex II

The allowance is payable to all eligible households who are covered by a licence and living in domestic structures in Temporary Housing Areas that are compulsorily cleared.

(1) The Housing Authority refurbished these blocks by re-instating and repairing the existing fitting and fixtures in the flats, and carrying out improvement works on electrical wiring and waterproofing to areas such as balcony floor and toilet floor. The Housing Authority will make sure that the refurbished public rental blocks are up to the required standard.

(Note 1)
The Housing Authority (HA) originally announced an accelerated THA clearance programme in 1993. However, to satisfy the heavy demand for interim housing, HA decided in September 1995 to retain 13 THAs, instead of 6 as originally planned, after 1997. If the clearance programme proceeded as scheduled, eligible residents in these THAs would have been rehoused to public rental flats before 1997. Therefore the HA undertook to grant public rental flats to those eligible residents who moved in the THAs on or before 23 September 1995 once the THAs concerned were cleared. This was called "Direct Offer Exercise".

(Note 2)
In future, Interim Housing will comprise only multi-storey concrete blocks and prefabricated interim housing blocks.