HOUSING AUTHORITY

Within the Government's overall housing policy framework, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) determines and implements public housing programmes. Its primary role is to provide subsidized public rental housing (PRH) to those low income families which cannot afford private accommodations. In addition, it runs interim housing (IH) and transit centres to provide temporary accommodations to families facing short-term problems in finding suitable accommodations. It also operates ancillary commercial and other non-domestic facilities such as flatted factories. It acts as the Government's agent for clearing land and controlling squatter areas. It has withdrawn from its previous role as provider of subsidized sale flats, though it continues to operate the Home Assistance Loan Scheme (HALS) which is under review.

The HA has a vital role to play in public housing development. As of September 2003^[1], it:

	Provided 649 400 PRH / IH flats for 2 019 000 persons, representing 30% of Hong Kong's total population;
	Sold 405 500 flats through various subsidized home ownership schemes, including: - 306 500 flats under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) / Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS); - 7 600 flats under the Mortgage Subsidy Scheme (MSS) / Buy-or-Rent Option (BRO); and - 91 400 flats under the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS);
	Granted 56 700 and 3 300 loans / subsidies under the Home Purchase Loan Scheme (HPLS) and the HALS respectively to applicants for purchase of flats in the private sector or the HOS secondary market; and
	Provided 2.26 million square metres internal floor area (IFA) of commercial and non-domestic premises and 100 000 car parking spaces.

The membership of the HA consists of a chairman, a vice chairman as well as two official members and 22 non-official members. Appointments are made by the Chief Executive. The Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (SHPL) is appointed as the Chairman to help forge closer collaboration between the Authority and the Government in the provision of housing services. The non-official members are appointed for a term of two years and are eligible for re-appointment.

To facilitate its operations, six standing committees have been formed under the HA to formulate, administer and oversee policies in specified areas. In addition, a number of sub-committees and panels have been formed to assist the HA and the standing committees to better discharge their functions.

Chart 1: Organization of the Housing Authority

Under the proposed institutional framework recommended by the Report on Review of Institutional Framework for Public Housing (RIFPH), the HA will in the longer term reduce its executive functions and evolve towards an advisory role on both public and private housing matters. However, the HA would retain all its executive responsibilities for now to allow more time to examine issues related to the mode of financing its activities, the legislative amendments as well as other administrative arrangements required to transform the HA into an advisory body. The evolution of the HA towards an advisory body will be kept as an option over a longer timeframe.

HOUSING DEPARTMENT

The policies set by the HA and its standing committees are implemented by the Housing Department (HD). The HD is headed by the Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Housing) who also assumes the office of the Director of Housing. He is supported by six Deputy Directors who are responsible for policy formulation and overseeing their implementation. As of 1 February 2004, the HD had a strength of 9 800^[2] staff, of which 8 400 were civil servants and 1 400 contract staff.

Chart 2: Organization of the Housing Department