Chairman's Statement

The Housing Society is no stranger to crisis, since its birth out of crisis in 1948 to help solve the housing problems of Hong Kong.

During the past year, we have faced one crisis after another: the US- China trade war, the social unrest, and the coronavirus outbreak. The COVID-19 crisis continued to wreak havoc across global economies, shutting down businesses and breaking the supply chain, and the challenges it posed were unparalleled.

For now, what is most important is to weather the storm and get Hong Kong, which is our home, back to its feet. For this reason, we had given support most needed to help the community as early as October 2019. Multiple rounds of rent concession worth HK$240 million were rolled out to commercial and domestic tenants in an effort to help them tide through this difficult period. We also relaxed the criteria of the Rent Assistance Scheme in order to benefit more tenants encountering financial hardship.

Notwithstanding the rent relief measures would put a deep dent in our income and likely to incur a deficit in the operating budget of the rental estates, we felt it was our responsibility to stand shoulder to shoulder with the communities in challenging times.

Help is also at hand for the people in dire need or economic distress as we initiated a donation programme to support food banks and domestic tenants impacted by the epidemic. The programme matched “dollar for dollar” to multiply the charitable donations made by the senior management team.

Partnering with the Government to Meet Housing Needs

Being a close partner of the Government, we have worked hand in hand with the Administration during the year on a number of Dedicated Rehousing Estate (DRE) projects planned to offer non- means-tested rehousing units for eligible residents affected by Government’s development clearance exercises or redevelopment projects in urban areas.

Four sites allocated to the Housing Society for the development of DRE are beginning to take shape. The development at Pak Wo Road in Fanling was well underway with foundation work while the remaining three sites at Hung Shui Kiu, Kwu Tung North as well as Kai Tak Area were undertaking the land grant process. We have so much to look forward to in these projects, given the large volumes of homes they could produce: about 3,800 rental units and 4,400 subsidised sale flats, to be provided between 2024 and 2029.

Optimising Housing Resources to Ensure Efficient Use

As we strive to extend the ribbons of development to meet the evolving housing needs of the population, land shortage remains a foremost challenge. Being a “housing laboratory” for Hong Kong, we never stop exploring the possibilities and options of housing supplies.

Last year, we launched two initiatives to provide more homes through optimising the use of existing housing resources. The enhanced “Letting Scheme for Subsidised Sale Developments with Premium Unpaid” was launched, allowing eligible owners of the Housing Society’s and the Hong Kong Housing Authority’s subsidised sale flats to let individual bedroom(s) or the entire flats to eligible public rental housing applicants. Response to the enhanced Scheme was overwhelming. We received more than 300 owner applications and 500 tenant applications, with around ten transactions recorded by end-May 2020.

The “Flat for Flat Pilot Scheme for Elderly Owners” was another housing solution rendered with optimal use of resources. Under the Scheme, eligible elderly owners of our subsidised sale flats are allowed to sell their original flat and buy a smaller one in the Secondary Market of either the Housing Society or the Hong Kong Housing Authority without payment of premium. The Scheme helps to create an all-win situation. On the one hand, the elderly owners are given an additional option to purchase a smaller subsidised sale flat which better suits their housing needs and aspirations without having to pay a hefty sum for the premium. On the other, it serves to free up the original flat for larger size households, thereby increasing the circulation of subsidised sale flats and achieving optimal use of public housing resources.

Apart from these strategies to make the most of the resources, we have been trying to provide more elderly housing with the concept of “single site, multiple uses”, also known as Mixed Development Model. The idea is to reserve a portion of units in rental estates and dedicated rehousing estates for the purpose, without having to seek new land or create new buildings for accommodation. The concept was already implemented in some of our projects under planning or development. The Phase I redevelopment of Ming Wah Dai Ha will have 48 units designated as units for the elderly, while the DRE at Pak Wo Road will have 260 Senior Citizen Residences Scheme (SEN) flats.

Supporting Social Housing to Accommodate People in Need

We have been putting a lot of efforts into the development of transitional housing in recent years to address the housing needs of people in the short and medium term. In 2018, we piloted the “T-Home” scheme in Yue Kwong Chuen to provide temporary homes for people waiting for public rental housing. Since then, over 250 families had moved into the homes.

In 2019/20, we launched another “T-Home” in Kwun Tong Garden Estate II. It was a replication of the “T-Home” model in Yue Kwong Chuen, where idle units in the rental estate pending redevelopment were refurbished and converted into transitional housing. Some 20 vacant units in the estate had been allocated for the new project. We expect more units would be available with the estate ceased renting out the units.

We are now expecting a new “T-Home” at Trackside Villas, a collaborative project with the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRC). It was opened for application in May 2020 as soon as the terms of agreement and collaboration were finalised.

In the coming days, the “T-Home” scheme will continue to be a key social project for the Housing Society, as we saw an immediate need to accommodate people who had been living in dismal or inadequate housing conditions.

Caring for the Elderly with “Ageing in Place”

As a pioneer of elderly housing in Hong Kong, our various housing and support schemes for the elderly had built a reputation for fostering “ageing in place”, be it the Ageing-in-Place (AIP) Scheme for seniors living in rental estates, the SEN for the middle-income group, or the Joyous Living Scheme for The Tanner Hill residents.

In an effort to evaluate the actual impact of the various schemes on their respective residents in terms of healthy ageing and “ageing in place”, we commissioned the Sau Po Centre on Ageing of The University of Hong Kong to conduct a series of studies. The research on the AIP Scheme and SEN was concluded in 2018. Findings from both studies show that the schemes are effective in achieving their goals of “ageing in place”.

This year, the last one of the third part series, a three-year longitudinal study on the Joyous Living Scheme implemented in The Tanner Hill, was completed. It corroborates the findings of the preceding two studies, showing that The Tanner Hill residents were able to maintain their health, mental health, and wellbeing quite well, in contrary to the expectation that this elderly cohort, most of them in their 70s or 80s, would have their physical and mental health slowly deteriorated.

It reinforced our belief that an elderly-friendly living environment with adequate support is conducive to sustaining the health and wellbeing of the seniors. In view of the massive benefits the schemes offered, we have been looking to promote and replicate these housing models with health and social care services to meet long term care needs of the ageing population.

Building a Better Hong Kong through CSR Initiatives

When Housing Society was founded 72 years ago, its single mission was to provide decent homes for Hong Kong people. Today, our mission remains unchanged, and we did more than that. We provided temporary homes for the needy, sponsored scholarships and bursaries for students, funded programmes for elderly citizens and disadvantaged children. And our volunteer teams continued to serve on the frontlines of various community events and activities across the territory.

To go an extra mile, we set up the Hong Kong Housing Society Academy Alumni Club during the year to bring young people together and contribute to the society. Established as a platform for our scholarship and bursary awardees to engage, the Alumni Club offers opportunities for training, volunteering, internships as well as career development opportunities. In 2019/20, we held a number of activities involving them to serve the aged and the vulnerable. We hope by means of nurturing and supporting our younger generation, we lay a better foundation for Hong Kong, and build a better future for all.

Reviewing Corporate Governance in Quest of Best Practices

A Corporate Governance Review was undertaken during the year with respect to its effectiveness and efficacy in taking forward the mission of the Housing Society. A number of areas, such as the Two-tier Board structure, the roles and responsibilities of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Committee, the set-up of various Committees, as well as the oversight were revisited. The findings of the Review are very encouraging and reassuring. It showed that Members strongly recognise the Housing Society’s mission, vision and guiding principles, and that we are on the right track with the existing governance structure.

The review also made some suggestions for enhancement, which had our endorsement, such as strengthening the alignment between the Supervisory Board and the Executive Committee; achieving better age and gender balance; and providing more opportunities for Members to participate, to name but a few.

Acknowledgements

Every crisis brings new opportunities and new perspectives. The crises we experienced during the year are no different. They had given us opportunity to try new ways of doing things, and offered us lessons on how to cope with the pandemic situation. More important, they brought Hong Kong people together, uniting us into one huge family, supporting and helping each other in the face of adversity. Armed with this Lion Rock spirit and can-do attitude, we are ready to vanquish whatever has beset us.

In closing, I would like to thank all our stakeholders for their unrelenting support at a time of great difficulty. My sincere thanks to members of our Supervisory Board, Executive Committee, and other Committees, who proactively contribute their invaluable expertise to add value to our works and commitments. I am also indebted to the Management, in particular KL, our former CEO, for his brilliant leadership in guiding the Housing Society through thick and thin. A big thank you goes to each of our staff, whose dedicated effort has helped the organisation create more successful stories.

Walter Chan Kar-lok SBS, JP

Chairman

15 June 2020