Mr Walter Chan Kar-lok, SBS, JP
It has been a year like no other, bringing with it the worst and best of times.
The coronavirus epidemic had exacted a devastating toll along the path it travelled, taking lives and shattering economies. It has been the worst of times for the global economy as the pandemic sent most countries into one of their worst recessions ever.
Despite the vaccine rollout in Hong Kong, a full recovery had yet to be in place as businesses are still struggling with social distancing measures in force while unemployment rate hovering at high levels.
Some of our residents were struggling under the pandemic, no doubt about it as applications for rent assistance hit record high. To help the community ride through the tough patch, we rolled out multiple rounds of rent concessions for our domestic and commercial tenants in an effort to alleviate their financial burden and keep them going.
To take it further, we initiated a matching donation campaign to raise funds for residents encountering financial difficulties, as well as charity bodies in hopes of supporting them to go the extra mile.
A month-long Bounce Back Together Shopping Promotion Campaign was launched during which 90,000 sets of coupons worth $100 each were delivered to our tenants and stakeholders, giving them a lift and providing vitality to the community.
These acts of kindness were a throwback to the early days when a similar sense of empathy and philanthropic spirit helped establish the Housing Society to address the housing shortage consequent to the influx of refugees after World War II.
Since then, we have brought that human element into our more than 70 years of journey of creating homes and reviving communities, and made it the guiding principle underlying every aspect of our work as we strive forward.
Creating Homes for All Ages and Abilities
It was the same distinctly human spirit that we wanted to inject into Ming Wah Dai Ha when we first announced its redevelopment in 2011. What we envisioned then was not merely a provision of better homes for the people, but one that capable of catering to the needs of people of all ages and abilities.
Completed in 2021, the Phase I Redevelopment provides 966 units in two towers. Apart from standard rental units, it also comes with elderly units, accessible units and adaptable units, with age-friendly design like handrails in the corridors, and more spacious kitchens and bathrooms for the manoeuvring of wheelchairs, facilitating a liveable environment for seniors and wheelchair users.
The future Phase III Redevelopment of Ming Wah Dai Ha will also include around 600 age-friendly units for middle-income elderly under the Senior Citizen Residences Scheme (SEN).
The Ming Wah Dai Ha Redevelopment, with the mix of unit types that bring along the co-living of the old and the young, the abled bodied and the disabled, will be a model for our future housing developments aiming to foster an inclusive community with intergenerational living.
Along such vision, we have commissioned a feasibility study to examine, review and enhance the universal design (UD) and barrier-free access (BFA) provisions in our rental estates, subsidised sale flats and SEN.
The provisions will be revisited with respect to design and planning considerations, legal regulatory framework and international best practices. In this connection, the Housing Society has set up mock-up flats with UD and BFA provisions as a platform to collect views and concerns of different stakeholders, including professional institutions, the academia and elderly service providers, among others.
Coupled with data and feedbacks collected from survey, interviews and focus group meetings, it is hoped that the information collated will help the Housing Society to develop domestic units with considerations on universal design for all ages, inclusive design for all abilities as well as enhancement on healthy living.
In addition, we also hope the initiative will help to raise awareness among stakeholders about the challenges encountered by the aged and the disabled in their living environment, and more important, the concept of home for all ages and abilities will become a trend in the market.
A Diversity of Housing Types to Address Accommodation Challenges
Over the years, the Housing Society has created a diversity of housing types to cater for the needs of people from all walks of life. In our portfolio, there were rental estates for the low-income families and subsidised sale flats at affordable prices for people aspired to be homeowners. We have also pioneered elderly developments integrated with service support to cater for different income groups: the Senior Citizen Residences Scheme for the middle-income elderly and The Tanner Hill for the high-end market. To support the elderly of our rental estates, an Ageing-in-Place Scheme was implemented to promote active ageing and well-being among elderly tenants. Harmony Place, a tower completed in 2014 comprising private apartments with elderly rental units in a single tower, was designed for intergenerational living.
As a housing laboratory, we constantly identify and explore possible housing options to fill the gaps in housing demand, supply and services and to address the pressing housing challenges facing Hong Kong. As such, we will be carrying out further research and studies on different concepts and typologies of housing, including intergenerational living, to keep pace with the evolving needs of the population.
Partnering with the Government to Increase Flat Production
Land and housing shortage has been a chronic problem in Hong Kong. The issue has been more critical than ever given that a stronger demand for housing is anticipated with population increase and dwindling household sizes. According to Government statistics, the population is projected to increase from 7.5 million in 2021 to 8.1 million in 2041, and the average household size had been on a downward trend, from 2.9 in 2014 to 2.8 in 2016, followed by further reduction to 2.7 in 2021. Coupled with a rapidly ageing population, further planning is needed to provide suitable housing for this population sector.
These factors will inevitably place a greater burden on the housing market. In view of the challenges and constraints in securing sufficient land for housing development, we need to explore ways to unleash the potential of land and make best use of housing resources.
In this regard, we have been maximising the development potential with the redevelopment of existing rental estates, where plot ratios had not been fully utilised. By uplifting the plot ratios with redevelopment, capacity was increased with high-rise buildings. For example, the three-phased redevelopment of Ming Wah Dai Ha will provide 3,919 units upon completion, 750 units more than that provided in the original estate.
Redeveloping old estates not only helps to increase housing supply, but better infrastructure and planning where a diverse mix of government, institution, community, elderly care and recreational facilities are integrated on the same site, and thus better support for the residents.
Optimising land use with the concept of “single site, multiple uses” will also be a major approach in unleashing the potential of land resources.
Take for example the site of Ting On Street, it was originally occupied by a basketball court and Refuse Collection Point before being repurposed as a rehousing estate, which will ultimately provide 371 units in addition to open spaces for public enjoyment and supporting facilities such as retail spaces, car park spaces, a ball court and a refuse collection point. There will also be a neighbourhood elderly centre within the same site. A pedestrian link will be added to the site for connecting Ting On Street and Ngau Tau Kok Road, thereby enhancing the walkability and connectivity within the district.
In fact, optimal use of land and housing resources could be made more effective when it was considered in a wider scale with larger volume of housing resources, as additional land resources are often needed to facilitate the building of rehousing estates for the redevelopment of rental estates. Thus, the redevelopment of Kwun Tong Garden Estate II will only be able to kickstart with the rehousing site at Ting On Street to accommodate the affected residents; similarly for Yue Kwong Chuen of which its demolition and redevelopment could only be made possible with the rehousing site at Shek Pai Wan Road for accommodating the residents.
In this connection, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the Government for granting us a number of decanting sites for the redevelopment of our rental estates over the past few years, and for engaging us in the development of a number of dedicated rehousing estates.
Moreover, we have been entrusted with the Government for the redevelopment of three squatter areas in Kowloon East during the year, which will help facilitate more housing supplies in the medium term. These sites and resources will help achieve a more flexible and efficient management of housing resources, which will bring better planning as well as better homes for Hong Kong people.
Caring for the Elderly with Ageing in Place
The year has been a tough one for the seniors. While older adults are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, they were advised to stay home and keep safe.
This is where the challenge begins. Isolation has been stressful for some of our senior tenants as they feared going out and contracting the disease. Loneliness exacerbates while social activities were suspended and venues for interaction and communication were closed to the public.
The times might have been testing, but our various support schemes, the Ageing-in-Place Scheme, Senior Citizen Residences Scheme as well as The Tanner Hill, have risen up to the occasion and our mission to facilitate ageing in place has lived up to the fullest. During the pandemic, our elderly services team reached out to the elderly residents in full gear, bringing them food parcels as well as anti-epidemic items like masks and hand sanitisers, to ensure they had ample supplies despite being housebound.
In a world devoid of social contact, the telephone has become the most important channel of connecting with the seniors. For the higher risk groups, our staff knocked on their door to make sure everything is alright.
To prevent the loss of function among our elderly residents being housebound and sedentary, online videos on home-based exercises were shared and reminded them to take regular exercise.
These stories not only demonstrate the value of the various schemes, but strike a chord with the human-centric approach underlying the very idea of ageing in place.
During the year, we promoted ageing in place through a number of initiatives including the revamp of Elderly Resources Centre and community events to promote applications of gerontechnology and concept of intergenerational harmony.
Build a Better Hong Kong through CSR Initiatives
In times of the pandemic where communities are in need of help and support, corporate social responsibility takes on a weight with unparalleled significance. During the year, we have rolled out various initiatives to render assistance and help to the community.
Apart from the anti-epidemic matching donation and the Bounce Back Shopping Campaign aforementioned, we have created over 100 short-term and trainee positions for fresh graduates and job seekers, giving them job and training opportunities when there had been fewer vacancies in times of economic downturn.
On another note, our volunteers from Housing Society Volunteer Team, Housing Society Academy Alumni Club, Housing Society Community, the Elderly Resources Centre, and the Ageing-in-Place Scheme, continued to commit their time and skills to various community initiatives to bring warmth and love to people in need.
Taken together, these volunteers helped to deliver food parcels and anti-epidemic items to more than 13,000 housebound elderly residents in our 20 rental estates. Other activities ranged from home modifications for seniors living alone in rental estates, collecting book donations for underprivileged children, to distributing lunchboxes to needy families.
By actively taking part in these initiatives, we hope to foster a caring community while facilitating a more sustainable future for Hong Kong.
Acknowledgements
The pandemic had transformed the world and changed the course we used to travel. The past year could have been the worst of times given the challenges we had gone through. Yet it brought out the very best of us as the people put aside their differences and helped each other. The isolation and social distancing had, on the contrary, brought us closer together. It was indeed the best of times for the society with the bringing back of inclusiveness and harmony.
In closing, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our stakeholders for helping us weather the storm and cope with the new normal. I would also like to express my gratitude to the members of our Supervisory Board, Executive Committee, and other Committees for bringing their experience and expertise to the Housing Society. My heartfelt thanks also go to the Management, in particular James, our CEO, for guiding the organisation through unprecedented crises. I also wish to express my most sincere gratitude to each of you at the Housing Society, in particular those working at the forefront, for setting an excellent example of professionalism, dedication and commitment. With such a wonderful team, I believe the best is yet to come for the Housing Society.
Walter Chan Kar-lok,
SBS, JP
Chairman
17 June 2021