Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department

Dr. Leung, ladies and gentlemen,

I am deeply honoured to be invited as the officiating guest and keynote speaker for the 6th Annual Congress of Gerontology. I am also somewhat humbled. I come before you as a novice amongst experts. The only relevant qualification which I can claim to share with the illustrious international and local scholars, and professionals here present today, is that I am growing older by the second. Beyond that my experience is very indirect.

I do, nevertheless, have my prejudices and my convictions and, happily, these coincide generally with the theme of this year's Congress: that ageing in place is to be preferred to the disorientation, and loss of both identity and dignity which can result from segregation and remote institutional care. How to achieve this in our crowded metropolis is another question and not one to which I have any ready answers. Instead, what I propose to do today is to share with you the collective experience of the Housing Authority in providing elderly housing in Hong Kong, to outline the challenges as I see them and, rather more tentatively, to suggest some of the options and opportunities as we move forward.

The Hong Kong Context

Let me start by putting things in perspective, particularly for those of you less familiar with Hong Kong, highlighting similarities and differences.

In common with other developed economies, Hong Kong has an ageing population. Sustained economic growth has steadily improved the standard of living, and this together with higher standards of medical care has lifted life expectancy. 20 years ago, Hong Kong Man could look to 70 years and Hong Kong Woman to 77. Today, these figures have risen to 77 and 82 respectively. Out of a population of 6.7 million, 15% are currently 60 or over and we estimate that this percentage will increase steadily to 20% of total population by 2016.

Where we differ from many other communities is in the extreme pressure on space imposed by our unique geography, the extent of Government's intervention in the housing market, and the way in which both have impacted on family decisions over time.

Since the start of the public housing programme in 1953, Government has provided subsidised rental and home ownership units for about half of Hong Kong's population. Thus the Housing Authority currently provides some 660,000 heavily subsidized rental units and has helped another 240,000 families purchase subsidized flats under the Home Ownership Schemes. This is an extraordinary achievement by any standards and it is particularly remarkable for a Government whose traditional inclination has been non-interventionist. We have one of, if not the most successful public housing programme in the world, but it has had a number of unintended side effects. One of these is to exacerbate that well-known conflict between allowing ageing in place and encouraging the younger generation to care for the old. Allow me to elaborate.

In the case of public rental housing, the Housing Authority which I represent, is not only the developer but also the manager. The rents it charges are only a third of the market average. Hardly surprising therefore that the programme is viewed by some as a sort of social safety net. Hardly surprising also that many look to the Housing Authority to provide a solution for the housing needs of our increasingly ageing population. Indeed the Housing Authority already houses a disproportionate number of the community's elderly. Around 54% of Hong Kong's elderly population live in public housing, and in some older estates the concentration is very high indeed.

I think it is worth reflecting first why this should be, and secondly why the market in this otherwise free-market economy seems unable to respond to an obvious demand for this particular group.

The disproportionate number of elderly in public housing reflects rational family choice in a grossly distorted market. Consider a family whose parents entered public housing in the late 50's or early 60's. As their children have grown up, been educated and found employment, many have also prospered. It is not uncommon, therefore, for the married children to move out of public housing and move into private accommodation, leaving the parents behind. This suits the parents, who would often much prefer to live in familiar surroundings. And it suits the children, who, on the one hand, want more room for their own young families in a new environment, and on the other, are happier to help Mum and Dad by paying the cheap rents charged by a benevolent Government for their public housing flat than to pay more to accommodate them in the private sector.

Thus it is also not uncommon for the Housing Authority, when it comes to redevelop its older estates, to find that many of the youngsters have already left. To illustrate the point, if you take our 8 oldest public housing estates, more than 30% of those living there are already over 60 and in one case the figure is nearly 40%. It may well be that the younger generation could afford to house their parents with them or even elsewhere, but it makes more economic sense to the family for the elderly to remain in public housing. The consequence in terms of benign neglect are obvious. The implications in terms of Government's role and responsibility rather less so. However, looking forward, the challenge seems to me to be to search for ways of reconciling both objectives, on the one hand encouraging the young to look after the old, on the other allowing ageing in place.

As to the reason for market failure, we need look no further than the scale of Government's intervention. The Government dominates the bottom end of the market. It provides subsidized rental housing for 35% of the population. As a result, the limited private rental market is completely polarized. At the top end there are the corporate rentals and flats occupied by young upwardly mobile professionals. At the bottom are the deteriorating older private sector properties which no one wants to buy until they are ripe for redevelopment. These are let out by landlords for whatever they can get, with minimum provision for management and maintenance. Poorer families not yet able to secure public housing, or unwilling to live away from the urban areas tend to gravitate towards such accommodation.

You may have heard of our "cage homes" and possibly of our "bedspace apartments". Their residents are predominantly elderly singletons or couples, and relatively new migrants. You will not have heard of private sector developers building new accommodation for them largely because private sector developers have no intention of competing with Government for this segment of the market. To this extent, the public housing programme has become part of the problem. Clearly, ageing in place in such slums is not a solution. Re-housing is, but how to persuade the elderly concerned to move to a better environment.

In the longer term, measures which the Government has already set in train, including the sale of public rental flats to sitting tenants will help to restore the market i.e. a range of good quality housing will become available for both sale and rent throughout the territory. In the meantime, we are tailoring our policies to address demand for elderly housing more directly. Our approach in recent years has been a three-pronged one:

• providing them with more subsidized Public Rental Housing;

• giving them priority for rehousing; and

• providing them with special services to meet their needs.

Let me flesh out this strategy in greater detail.

In terms of housing provision, we have been providing more and more PRH designated for the elderly. In the next five years, we are committed to providing 30,000 small flats suitable for allocation to the elderly. Previously, we only provided the elderly with self-contained units. In recent years, we have developed more diversified types. Our Housing for Senior Citizens (HSC) developments provide hostel-type accommodation with a warden service. These new HSC not only enable us to utilize our scarce land resources more effectively, but also provide the elderly with an environment in which they can either enjoy privacy or mingle with one another as they wish. The HSC are not isolated developments, but are fully integrated into our public rental estates, such that the old are never far from the sight or sound of children playing.

In terms of housing allocation, we are giving special priority to the elderly. While the average waiting time for PRH is now 6.5 years, elderly applicants are guaranteed rehousing within 4 years for self-contained units. If they choose HSC, they will be rehoused in 2 years. At the same time we are tailoring our policies to encourage the younger families to live with their elderly parents. To this end we operate a number of elderly persons priority schemes which provide special incentives for younger generation applicants who are prepared to live with their elderly parents. Similarly, families with elderly persons are also given priority in purchasing our subsidized sale flats and these are always over-subscribed.

As regards providing for special needs, we are heavily reliant on voluntary agencies and we make space available to them for day care centres and the like. In addition, we have experimented with an Estate Liaison Officer Scheme. Under this scheme, which now operates in the 25 PRH estates with a specially high concentration of elderly tenants, our estate liaison officers keep in touch with the elderly, identify their needs and encourage their participation in social activities. As a matter of course, we now also install emergency alarm systems, in all flats where the elderly are living alone so that they can call for assistance in case of emergency.

Challenges Ahead: Options and Alternatives

Whilst these arrangements represent progress, I would be the first to admit that more can and should be done. However, before we go much further, I believe we should pause to review what we have been doing, where we are headed and whether or not we could achieve our objectives more effectively. So in suggesting a few do's and don'ts for the future, I will focus on three areas : demand, design and the division of responsibilities.

First of all, demand. If we are to be able to focus our housing assistance on those most in need, we need to take a much harder-headed look at how we assess demand. The fact that the elderly population in Hong Kong will rise to 20% of the total by 2016 does not mean that the Government needs to provide housing for all of them. Those who have the means to look after themselves, or whose families are perfectly capable of providing for them, have no call on the public purse. However, those who qualify for public housing should, I believe, be given not only the full range of choice available to others but also preferential priority.

As regards re-assessing numeric demand, the Government's Planning Department will put in place and operate a specialized model for housing demand for the elderly by 1999. This demand model aims to assess not only the housing needs for the elderly in total, but also the extent to which assisted housing is needed and the specific types of accommodation required. Once this more objective and scientific demand model is in place, we should be able to plan our future public housing supply more realistically and avoid some of the mis-matches experienced in the past.

However, it is also important, I believe, that we take an equally hard look at our various allocation policies so as to ensure that the incentives point consistently in the right direction. While we need to strengthen allocation priorities for new applicants in ways which encourage the young to look after the old, we need also to be certain that we do not leave unchanged policies which inadvertently have the opposite effect on existing tenants.

I mentioned earlier that we have started the process of selling public rental housing flats to sitting tenants. Obviously not all of those in estates offered for sale will be able or willing to buy. (It is early days yet - we only launched the first phase of the scheme at the beginning of this year - but experience so far suggests that 70% of tenants will purchase.) And I think it safe to assume that a fair number of those who do not purchase will be elderly. However, we will not move them out of the estates. Encouraging ownership must not be allowed to result in any form of ghettoization either by age or income level. The Housing Authority will remain the landlord for those flats which are not sold in these estates and we will manage that stock sensibly.

Which brings me to design. We have to recognize that demographic change requires that we design in both flexibility and innovation such that we can adjust to meet the needs of all ages and the balance of facilities provided for them at any one time.

We have already produced a range of flats designed specifically for older people. We will learn from them and develop further. We have also designed new small household blocks and annex blocks for inclusion in new estates to provide accommodation for elderly household who want to live physically apart from their grown-up children in different units but in the same locality. Again we will learn from these. Separately, we will be building on the success of the first few Housing for Senior Citizen blocks which I mentioned earlier. These will be designed to accommodate a continuum of social services, including day-time social centres and clinics to be operated by other government departments and voluntary agencies. They will provide "one-stop-shop" service allowing able-bodied elderly to age in place in familiar surroundings. Since the elderly are more likely to have diversified social and medical needs than ordinary persons, their housing needs are also likely to be more diversified. The design and nature of our elderly housing must be responsive to these needs.

We are currently doing desk-top studies for the redevelopment of some of our older estates. Our aim will be to ensure that all elderly families who want to stay in the same district will be re-accommodated there in purpose-built blocks designed into the fabric of the new estate, providing fully integrated services on the one hand and preserving a sense of community on the other. Thus, as we redevelop the older estates, where a very large proportion of residents are elderly, we will be looking to provide them with a range of accommodation types tailored to suit their needs. Our aim will be to allow them to age in place, and yet be provided with all forms of necessary support services.

Lastly, as regards roles and responsibilities, I firmly believe that we must take a more holistic and professional approach to providing services for the elderly generally. More sophisticated services demand more professional management. As a developer, the HA is well placed to provide the hardware for those in need. It is much less well-suited to providing the software. That is an increasingly specialised field and I look forward to working with colleagues in other disciplines on alternatives to the present somewhat ad hoc arrangements, including for example, contracting out the management of elderly public housing to specialised agencies or companies.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen, in a year when a 77 years-old is rocketed into space, defining age is problematic and describing ageing as a problem is clearly misguided. It is vitally important that we do not fall into the trap of defining challenges and devising solutions statically. There is a continual need to identify the changes in demand in terms of both numbers and service type. And there is a similar need for a flexible and diversified approach to provision of elderly housing.

I have set out what we are doing now and for the immediate term. For the longer term with our more open border and progressively greater familiarity, more and more of our community both young and old may look north for holiday and retirement homes. I for one would not discourage it. Rather I would encourage all professionals in the housing, social service and medical field to work jointly and imaginatively towards better and more flexible elderly housing solutions, bearing in mind how in many parts of the world the "problem of ageing" has proved to be an "opportunity for commerce" which has led to radically enhanced standards of service and individual dignity.