To mark the 60th anniversary of public housing development in Hong Kong, an exhibition titled “Growing up with Public Housing” has been jointly organised by the Housing Authority (HA), the Antiquities and Monuments Office and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the Chairman of the HA Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said, “Hong Kong people have benefited from our public housing programme over the past 60 years. Public housing has laid a solid foundation for the city’s social and economic development. It has improved the living conditions of many of our families and facilitated upward social mobility. It has also helped spur the development of our new towns and driven Hong Kong’s growth. Public housing has been one of Hong Kong’s success stories and is a collective achievement that Hong Kong people are proud of.”

The exhibition is divided into five zones, namely “milestones in public housing development”, “transformation of public housing design”, “evolution of public housing estate management”, “new town development – urbanisation and public housing planning”, and “memories of public housing”. Through the display of historic photos, artefacts and models, the public can gain a better understanding of the evolution and development of local public housing over the past six decades.

The exhibition will be held until 2 March 2014 at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre, Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. The Heritage Discovery Centre is open from 10 am to 6 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and from 10 am to 7 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (closed at 5 pm on Christmas Eve and Chinese New Year's Eve). It is closed on Thursdays (except public holidays) and the first two days of the Chinese New Year. Members of the public are welcome to visit. Admission is free.

Since its launch on the HA/HD Website, facebook, You Tube and the Housing Channel from July 2012 to February 2013, “Community Impressions” video series which depicts life of tenants at public housing estates has received encouraging responses and won various awards at international video contests. The honours we gained include a Bronze Award (winning video: “Reminiscences of Wah Fu”) and an Honours Award (winning video: “Feeling Groovy at Nga Ning”) at the Mercury Excellence Awards; a Silver Award (winning video: “Homeward Bound to Tsui Ping”) and a Bronze Award (winning video: “The Show Goes on at Shek Kip Mei”) at the Questar Awards; as well as a finalist certificate at the 2013 New York Festivals: International Television & Film Awards.

“Community Impressions” video series consists of eight stories in which residents share with the audience their feelings, experiences and anecdotes of life in public housing estates. To review the videos, please visit our Housing Authority / Housing Department Website.

Mr Paul Tennant, President of Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) paid a visit to the Housing Authority (HA) on 26 September to develop a better understanding of the development and management of public rental housing in Hong Kong.

Accompanied by Assistant Director (Estate Management) of the Housing Department Mr Tony Liu, Mr Tennant and the delegates from Asian Pacific Branch of CIH toured at the Exhibition Centre and had a meeting with colleagues of Estate Management Division to share experience in housing management work and promoting professional housing management. Mr Tennant also visited Domain and Yau Lai Estate to have a closer look at the designs and facilities of HA’s commercial centre and public housing estate.

CIH is a professional organisation for people working in housing management field, headquartered in the United Kingdom. It plays a leading role in setting standards in policy formulation, training and education as well as professional development in housing management.

With a view to getting acquaintance with the management and monitoring of the service contractors of the Housing Department (HD), delegates of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), led by Controller of Management Services Mr Michael S C Chan, visited the HD’s Estate and Development Services Sub-section, the Services Support Unit and the Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) on 25 September.

While Senior Housing Manager/Estate and Development Services of the HD Mr M K Cheung briefed the FEHD delegates on the management of cleansing and security service contracts in estates under HD’s direct management; Senior Property Service Manager/Services Support Mr K S Yau introduced the management of property services contracts in estates managed by the Property Service Agents. Views on various topics ranging from the mechanism of inspection and monitoring of service contractors’ performance, measures to ensure contractors’ compliance of contract requirements, performance assessment mechanisms, to application of technology in assisting the contract management work were exchanged.

On the protection of non-skilled workers, Senior Housing Manager/Public Housing Resource Management Mr Ralph Y L Chau explained the operation of the CMU. Areas such as conducting surprise checks to service contractors in estates, conducting interviews with the non-skilled workers, compiling investigation reports, appeal and review mechanisms on the issues of Default Notice which attracts Demerit Point as well as Default Notice which does not attract Demerit Point, and the e-Face system, etc, were also covered.

The FEHD delegates found the information provided very useful and valuable, and expressed their appreciation for the work done and achievements attained by the HD.

After having served in the civil service for 39 years, Mr K C Chiu is retiring from his post of Assistant Director (Housing Subsidies) and proceeding to his pre-retirement leave on 1 November. Housing Dimensions interviewed Mr Chiu shortly before his departure, when he shared some of his most cherished memories of working in the Housing Department (HD), and reminisced about public housing development over the years.

After graduating from university in 1974, Mr Chiu joined the then Public Works Department as an Electrical Engineering Graduate. Two years later, he switched to work in the HD; for the following 37 years he has been connected with public housing. On first joining the HD, he worked as an Assistant Building Services Engineer, in charge of installing electrical supply systems for temporary housing areas in places like Kowloon Bay and Sai Kung, meeting the basic needs of residents there. In 1980, a new generation of factory buildings was developed. Mr Chiu was responsible for installing their cargo lifts, fire safety equipment, and equipment for an increased electric power supply to cater for the requirements of different industries. This kind of factory building still remains in operation today; examples are Chun Shing Factory in Kwai Chung and Sui Fai Factory in Sha Tin.

In the 1980s, Mr Chiu was involved in the development of public housing in new towns, among which he was responsible for building services at On Ting Estate and Yau Oi Estate in Tuen Mun. The scope of Mr Chiu’s building services work covered four major elements: air-conditioning, fire services equipment, water and electricity. “In those years, Tuen Mun was just a piece of wasteland. The ground quickly became flooded with muddy water after heavy rain. Cars couldn’t move, and we needed to wade through water to get to the construction site.” He continued, “Town gas had not reached Tuen Mun in those days. We had to design and adopt a centralised system for supplying liquefied petroleum gas to On Ting and Yau Oi Estates. We identified safe places in the estates to store the liquefied petroleum gas. Only the old-type estates had storage areas especially for this purpose.”

The nature of Mr Chiu’s job as Senior Building Services Engineer changed significantly in 1997. That was because quite a number of construction projects began to be contracted out to consultants. As Mr Chiu had to manage the consulting companies, his role changed from an engineering to a management one. He admitted this was a good opportunity for him to expand his vision, as he was required to manage consultancy companies of different professions. In 2002, when Mr Chiu was Acting Chief Building Services Engineer, he helped transfer the duty of supplying water to building services engineers. Previously, architects designed the water supply to flats, while the supply pipes provided by the Water Supplies Department stopped at the boundaries of estates. Under Mr Chiu, designing the pipes from the estate boundary to the flats, including the dimensions and materials of pipes, and arranging their installation locations, all became part of the duties of building services engineers.

After over 20 years of working in the area of building services, Mr Chiu was promoted to Chief Manager/Management (Support Services) in 2005, and turned a new page in his career. “My main duty was on the outsourcing strategy, including drawing up standard employment contracts to protect contractors’ employees. To prevent non-skilled workers from being exploited by unscrupulous employers, we developed and launched a marking scheme in different departments in those years.” Although the work mentioned above was significant, it made up only around half of Mr Chiu’s job load. He continued, “My duties connected with building services included driving the Rewiring inside Domestic Flats Programme, where flats were rewired in estates of 25 to 30 years of age. We also replaced old lifts with new ones, with our target being to replace 100 old lifts each year. Lifts were also added in buildings without them. This 10-year programme of replacing and adding lifts cost around $1 billion in total, with its goal to raise the quality of living for residents.”

Mr Chiu also implemented other policies to improve residents’ quality of living. For example, service providers were invited to provide free Wi-Fi services for estates in early 2008, and tenants were able to enjoy digital terrestrial television broadcasts with the appropriate decoders in August of the same year. In addition, the Closed Circuit Television systems were upgraded with digital recording equipment and colour LCD monitors, leading to big improvements in the quality of security video footage.

Mr Chiu was promoted to Assistant Director (Housing Subsidies) in 2010. His first mission was to create an electronic version of the public rental housing application form, making for greater convenience for applicants. He said, “Colleagues from the Public Housing Applications Section and the Information Technology Sub-division have recently been exploring ways of using electronic technology to simplify and digitalise the approval procedures for applications, and increase efficiency.” During Mr Chiu’s tenure, two other important missions were undertaken. One was Extending the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Secondary Market to White Form Buyers; the other was managing the Sale of Surplus Home Ownership Scheme Flats Phase 7 earlier this year. Mr Chiu faced many challenges in dealing with the latter project. This was because Tin Chung Court in Tin Shui Wai was built quite a few years ago, and each of the HOS units had to be inspected to ensure all of them complied with the appropriate standards. Moreover, the Residential Properties (First-hand Sales) Ordinance was on the verge of being implemented. Although HOS was not subject to this restriction, Mr Chiu still wanted to work according to the Ordinance’s guidelines. Both projects were completed satisfactorily as a result of concerted efforts from different divisions.

Mr Chiu was Chairman of the Housing Authority (HA) Staff Club in the last year of his tenure at the HD. He said, “The HD has recruited quite a number of new staff in recent years to manage growing demand for the building of new flats. At one point, converting the staff club activity room into offices for staff was considered. Luckily, the room was kept and staff can still use it for leisure activities. Moreover, around 6 000 colleagues and family members took part in the recent Disneyland Fun Fair. It was tremendously successful. I hope similar group activities will be organised in the future so that colleagues and their families can enjoy happy times together.”

In a parting message, Mr Chiu offered a word of encouragement to all HD colleagues. “Demands from the public are increasing, and colleagues have to handle enquiries from many different groups within the community. Inevitably, work pressure will keep growing. I suggest colleagues proceed cautiously, and carry out regular inspections of working procedures with the aim of simplifying and improving them to meet the demands of this era. I sincerely hope that colleagues will dedicate themselves to the work of the HA, stay committed to serving the public, and sustain the four core values － caring, customer-focused, creative and committed, so as to face the challenges ahead successfully.” Of his retirement, Mr Chiu plans to take a rest and go on a vacation trip with his family. Housing Dimensions wishes him the best of health and a happy life of retirement.

A profile of Mr Chiu