CITIES, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING NOVEMBER 2011 For People, We CARE; - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

CITIES, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING NOVEMBER 2011

For People, We CARE; For Justice, We ACT!

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Housing Inequality and Poverty in Hong Kong

Society for Community Organization

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Phenomenon of Housing Inequality in Hong Kong

• Social exclusion in the society
• Absence of social justice and

caring to the underprivileged among the society

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Existence of inhabitable cagehomes and cubicles

• No. of households and

persons living in inadequate housing have decreased over the past years

• Yet, over 75,000 dwellers are

still living in degrading condition

• The figure is underestimated

as those residents living at industrial buildings are not counted.

Year

• No. of

Households

• No. of

Persons

2001 97,600 210,100 2002 91,400 182,800 2003 78,400 149,300 2004 72,700 137,000 2005 67,700 122,800 2006 58,300 111,500 2007 48,900 93,500 2008 43,700 89,200 2009 45,700 91,600 2010 35,500 75,600

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Stronger housing need: More people are waiting for public rental housing

• Increasing number of population

(Over 320,000 people) waiting for Public Rental Housing due to the decrease of allocated units every year, decrease of newly built flats every year and increasing number of working poor and needy (poverty gap).

Year

• No. of registered

applicants

• n the Waiting List

2001 104,833 2002 86,359 2003 91,921 2004 92,600 2005 94,100 2006 106,600 2007 110,800 2008 111,300 2009 111,400 2010 145,000 2011.6 155,600

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WHO are the urban dwellers?

• Low-income families and their children
• Singletons
• New Immigrants from

mainland China

• Working poor
• Elderly persons
• People with mental illness
• Ex-offenders
• Homeless, etc,.

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HOW do they suffer?

• Problems at the impoverished slums
• Over 40 residents

camped into 80 square meters flat, which is almost the highest density in the world.

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Each resident only lives at 1.5 square meter tiny bed space.

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• Poor hygiene and poor ventilation

with cockroaches, fleas, rats and other insects found in the beds that residents easily fell ill and cannot sleep.

South China Morning Post (8 August 2011)

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Hong Kong Metro (8 August 2011)

Hong Kong Headline (2 August 2010)

Extremely high temperature of cubicles and roof-top huts during summer which suffocates the residents and harm to health

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The Standard (2 August 2010)

Hot weather at cubicles putting the life of the poor at risk

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The Standard (8 August 2011)

Extremely high rent (as high as the luxury house) (maximum $500 /sq. meters.) which creates heavy financial burden Research findings:

• an average flat of 8 sq.meters

with a rent of HK$2,300. ($287.5 per sq.meters), with the rent-to-income-ratio of the tenants over 34.4%.

Singpao News (15 August 2011)

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International concern on the inhumane living condition of cage lodgers

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The South China Morning Post & The Standard (16 June 2011)

• Highly condensed insecure

cubicles putting the life of the residents at risk

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Collapse of old tenement building at Ma Tau Wai that killed the residents at urban slums (29 January 2010)

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Tenants under high risk of harm due to fire and poor safety

• 80 tenants of partitioned-rooms at Sham Shui Po

escaped from fire accident due to short circuit of ammeter and meter wire (4 November 2011)

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WHY are they living at cage / cubicles?

• 1. Housing policy problem

1.1 Long waiting time for public housing 1.2 Discriminatory policies of public housing:

• Introduction of discriminatory “point-system” for singletons
• 7-year residency requirement for allocation of rental public housing
• 2. Poverty
• Low wage cannot afford a decent living
• Not enough rent allowance of social security
• Expensive rent in the market
• Depends on job opportunities and low living cost in old urban

areas

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(1) Discrimination against Singletons

• Points system: discriminatory in

nature, ignore the housing rights of the young and mid-age singletons.

• In March 2011, there are over

70,000 singletons applicants in the waiting list of public housing.

• Unknown waiting time for

applicant aged 30 or below since the point system has been introduced in October 2005

• Waiting time for mid-age poor

singleton age will be 20 to 30 years for public housing allocation.

• Government only supplies 1,500

to 2,000 units for singletons each year.

• No. of one-person applicants for

public rental housing Age below 60 Age

• ver 60

Total 2004 32,900 3,400 36,300 2005 36,800 4,000 40,800 2006 36,900 5,500 42,400 2007 37,500 6,100 43,600 2008 38,700 5,400 44,100 2009 43,100 5,400 48,500 2010.3 51,700 5,400 57,100 2011.3 ~63,400 ~5,600 >70,000

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Discriminatory application criteria for singletons - Points system

Examples:

• applicant aged 20: 6 points

aged 23 who waiting for 3 years: 15 + 36 = 51 points aged 44 who waiting for 4 years: 78 + 48 = 126 points ** For applicants living in PRH, including rental housing

• perated by the Hong Kong Housing Society, 30 points will be

deducted.

• The higher points you get, the earlier allocation you will have.
• BUT, points of allocating the housing is not fixed which will be

adjusted with respect to the amount of public housing allocation and the points that other applicants have.

• Singletons were not allowed to apply for public housing before 1985
• The Government introduce points system to singleton applicants so as to
• ppress young singleton applications in 2005.
• allotted basing on an applicant's age when his / her application is registered.
• “0” point will be given to applicants aged 18
• 3 points will be added for every year of age,
• 1 additional point for 1 more month on the waiting list.

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• Over 7,600 (March 2011)

applications were frozen, while 2,800 children were affected.

• During allocation, at least half (50%
• r over) of the family members

included in the application must have lived in Hong Kong for seven years and are still living in Hong Kong. ** Children under 18 are waived if: (i) one of their parents having lived in Hong Kong for seven years;

• r (ii) Hong Kong born as

permanent resident.

• 7-year requirement (at least half

(50% or over) of the family members must have lived in HK) for allocation: discrimination against new immigrants from mainland China.

(2) Discrimination against New Immigrants from Mainland China

Year

• No. of N.I.
• ne-

person application be frozen No .of N.I. families applicati

• n be

frozen Total numbe r of applic ation being frozen 1999 734 27,572 28,306 2000 1,252 6,990 8,242 2001 2,345 9,219 11,564 2002 4,554 10,001 14,555 2003 7,689 13,532 21,221 2004 10,300 3,800 14,100 2005 10,500 5,400 15,900 2006 7,800 11,100 18,900 2007 6,100 10,300 16,400 2008 4,300 10,300 14,600 2009 5,400 3,000 8,400 2011.3 3,200 4,400 7,600

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(3) The final refuge for the working poor to survive by themselves

• Non-elderly families are NOT eligible for allocation of public

housing at urban area (i.e. Kowloon and Hong Kong Island)

• Allocated to public housing at far and remote area (New

Territories) which results to high transportation cost, long traveling time, difficult to find job, weaken supporting network and even cannot afford to live at public housing.

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• Elderly were re-housed in a new area which

destroyed the original social and supporting network

• f the elderly.
• Share flat for elderly result in dispute
• Insufficient supporting service

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(4) Needs of the Elderly persons were ignored

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(5) Sub-standard rent for social welfare recipients

• Insufficient financial support for welfare recipients living in private

rental housing that creates the market of partitioned rooms and cagehomes.

http://www.swd.gov.hk/doc/social-sec/CSSAG0811e.pdf 23

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Not affordable and insecure tenancy of habitat under high inflation

• high rate of rent at private market under high inflation and strong

demand of underprivileged.

• Around 50% of the welfare recipients living at private rental housing

whose monthly rent are higher than the Maximum level of Rent Allowance (MRA) provided by the Social Welfare Department between year 2009 and April 2011. Near 60% of them are 1-person household that the elderly persons (31.6%) and single-parent families (20.4%) are the majority groups. (as at April 2011)

December 2009 December 2010 April 2011 Actual rent higher than MRA 23,602 23,009 23,128 Total number of welfare recipient living at private housing 49,750 47,334 46,737 % of actual rent higher than MRA total number

• f welfare recipient living at private housing

47.4% 48.6% 49.5%

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WHY Social Policy can’t help?

Defects of Government policy:

• Not enough public housing supply (from 50,000 units per year to

15,000 units per year)

• Inadequate land supply for public rental housing under the high

land price policy

• Too few quota & discriminatory points system for singletons
• 7-year requirement for public housing allocation
• Limit choice of geographical area of public housing
• Improper housing for elderly
• Insufficient rent allowance for welfare recipients
• No rent subsidy for waiting list applicants of public rental housing

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Housing policy in favor of the privileged

• Decrease of annual supply of new public rental housing units:

From 50,000 (2001) to 15,000 (2011 onwards)

• Given up long term housing strategy since year 2003
• Housing supply is far from the need of the society, average waiting

for new immigrants and singletons: 8 years or more.

• Cancellation of rent control (1998) and tenure of tenants (2004)
• Purpose: support high land price policy and protect the interest of

private proprietary developers under high pressure

Average erage

• no. of flats

ts

• f public

ic renta tal l housing ing per year Average erage

• no. of

private ate flats ts provid ided in market ket Mean n

• f Rent

t Index x of private ate flats ts Small all domest stic c unit at HK Island and (i.e.

• e. Less

s than 40

• sq. meters)

ers) $ / per m2 per month th Year 2001 to 2005 25,466 24,740

83.3 $ 173.8

Year 2006 to 2010 11,652 11,278 105.8

$ 252.2

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Housing problem  Poverty problem

• The number of poor population remains higher
• The income disparity became more serious
• No policy to tackle income disparity
• Housing inequality is the miniature of social inequality

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The Change of Gini-coefficient in Hong Kong between 1971 and 2006

Year of Census or bi-census Gini- coefficient 1971 0.430 1976 0.429 1981 0.451 1986 0.453 1991 0.476 1996 0.518 2001 0.525 2006 0.532

Widening disparity between the rich and the poor

Gini-Coefficient: It ranges from value 0 to 1， 0 indicates that the income distribution is absolute equal, while 1 indicates that the income distribution is absolute unequal. The greater the value, the more serious the income disparity will be.

The grassroots cannot share the fruit of economic success.

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Growth rate of median household income is lagging behind that of the economic growth

$0 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 2 2 2 2 4 2 6 2 8 2 1 Q 2 Median Household Income Per capita GDP

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Q2 Median Household Income $18,000 $18,000 $17,000 $16,000 $16,000 $17,000 $17,000 $17,500 $18,000 $17,500 $17,700 Per capita GDP $168,920 $168,513 $170,857 $176,341 $189,785 $189,785 $202,340 $215,158 $240,339 $231,638 $246,773

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Increasing poor population and Polarization

• f Income Inequality
• The number of poor population jumps to 1.26 million (2010) and

more than 470,000 households living under poverty, which comes to the highest since year 2000.

• No. of poor

population (thousand) Poverty Rate (%)

Total number of poor population in Hong Kong (2001 – Jun 2011)

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 June 2010 June 2011

• No. of poor

population (thousand) 1,186.6 1,185.7 1,165.7 1,185.7 1,160.7 1,205.5 1,223.0 1,212.3 1,196.0 1,260.0 1,205.0 Poverty Rate (%) 17.8% 17.7% 17.4% 17.6% 17.2% 17.8% 17.9% 17.6% 17.3% 18.1% 17.9%

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Problem of Sub-divided Units

• 20. The public is also concerned about building

dilapidation, unauthorised building works (UBWs) and, in particular, “sub-divided units”. Undoubtedly, “sub- divided units” pose risks to building safety, but they do provide accommodation for low-income people not eligible for public housing. Banning “sub-divided units” across the board is therefore not a solution.

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NEED in the market? Policy Address 2011/2012

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Income disparity = Necessary evil of Capitalism ?

Passive Role of Government on Policy Intervention (extracted from Policy Address 2011/2012 (para. 190-192) Role of the Government

• the core principle of “Big Market, Small Government
• strictly controlling recurrent government expenditure.
• 192. The wealth gap has become a structural cause
• f social tension. Those working in globalised and high-

end economic sectors, such as the financial sector, have seen their pay rising continuously. On the contrary, those in low-end service sectors have had to live with a consistently low income. In addition, the disappearance

• f middle-level positions has removed a rung on the

ladder for upward mobility. The wealth gap generated by globalisation is all the more acute in a city economy like Hong Kong. I believe that it is difficult to solve the problem completely. However, we will ease the resulting tensions through various policy measures.

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Absence of democratic system to check & balance the power of the Administration

• Unjust and undemocratic political system
• Chief Executive (CE) is elected by the 800-member Election

Committee dominated by business sectors, professionals and pro-Beijing camp, and had prejudiced to the interest of the privileged class.

• CE is NOT elected by universal suffrage and not accountable

for general public.

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Cutting Profit Tax to repay the support of the privileged during Chief Executive election

Return Wealth to the People

70.(1) Tax Reduction: … Given the significance of profits tax on the Government’s revenue, I intend to adopt a prudent approach by initially offering a one percentage point cut to 16.5% in 2008-09…. We will consider further profits tax relief if our economy remains robust and our public finances stay sound.

The 2007 - 08 Policy Address: A New Direction for Hong Kong

This proposal will cost the Government $4.4 billion a year.

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What is the consequence? The underprivileged has to bear the burden of high rent while has poor standard of living at urban slums.

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WHAT ACTIONS should be taken?

The Hong Kong SAR Government should: Housing Policy:

• Increase the supply of public rental housing to at least 35,000 units per

year.

• Reserve enough land supply for public rental housing at urban areas.
• Abolish the discriminatory points system for singletons and increase

supply for singletons.

• Abolish the discriminatory 7-year requirement for public housing

allocation

• Strengthen the social and supporting services for the elderly
• Resume legislation on rent control and tenure of tenants.
• Increase rent allowance for welfare recipients to ensure an affordable

and decent housing.

• Provide rent subsidy for waiting list applicants of public rental housing

Anti-Poverty Policy:

• Re-establish the Commission on Poverty
• Introduce long-term strategies to alleviate poverty

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Conclusion

• The livelihood of the underprivileged poor is a good

indicator to evaluate the work of the government.

• Justice has not been done and seen in Hong Kong

society.

• The poor remains to be the sufferer under the

undemocratic and unaccountable political system.

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