About the Housing Authority

The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is a statutory body established in April 1973 under the Housing Ordinance (Chapter 283). The HA develops and implements a public housing programme which seeks to achieve the Government's housing policy objective of providing subsidised public housing to families who cannot afford private rental accommodation in the territory.

Our Vision

Vision

• To help all families in need gain access to adequate and affordable housing.

Mission

• To provide affordable quality housing, management, maintenance and other housing related services to meet the needs of our customers in a proactive and caring manner;
• To ensure cost-effective and rational use of public resources in service delivery and allocation of housing assistance in an open and equitable manner; and
• To maintain a competent, dedicated and performance-oriented team.

Core Values

Our Strategy for Sustainable Construction:

To progressively achieve sustainable development in public housing which balances environmental, social and economic needs with a view to attaining healthy living, sustainable construction and enhancement of the total urban environment.

Our sustainability priorities are:

Environmental

The HA is committed to properly manage and reduce the consumption of resources in our daily operations, especially in relation to waste reduction and energy use. We are also committed to introduce environmentally friendly methods to further reduce overall environmental impacts arising from our planning, development, management and maintenance processes.

Social

The HA is committed to prioritise the public housing to those who need it the most. We are also committed to provide a safe, hygienic and affordable living environment to our tenants and make our public housing estates a better and comfortable place to live in. In addition, we seek to become a role model in providing a safe and healthy working environment for our business partners who are involved in our housing development and management services. We endeavour to enhance social cohesion and contribute to the well-being of society as a whole.

Economic

The HA is committed to adopting cost-effective and economically-viable approaches in all aspects of our public housing programme. These can be achieved through a number of measures, including optimisation of the HA's resources, prevention of the abuses of public housing and extension of the useful life of our existing buildings.

HA's operation in relation to each of the sustainability component is depicted in the following figure.

Our Role and Services

Housing Stock and Production

In building and construction of new estates, we enjoyed a satisfactory year. We have completed a total number of 19 050 new flats in eight estates namely Ching Ho Estate in Fanling, Mei Tin Estate in Sha Tin, Un Chau Estate in Sham Shui Po, Yau Lai Estate at the Eastern Harbour Crossing, Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate, Lam Tin Estate, Choi Ying Estate and Sau Mau Ping Estate in Kwun Tong. At the end of March 2009, our total housing stock stood at around 694 000 units in 195 estates and courts.

Under our current five-year construction programme, production between 2009/10 and 2013/14 is forecasted at a total of 74 000 new flats or an average of around 15 000 new units a year.

Commercial Properties

In addition to the existing some 159 240 m² of commercial and retail properties; and 27 000 car parking spaces, we have also added another 2 100 m² of retail spaces as well as 220 parking spaces at both Choi Ying Estate and Upper Ngau Tau Kok Estate.

Infrastructure

To fulfil the needs of our tenants and provide a convenient and living environment, associated infrastructure/facilities such as footbridges, public transport terminals/hubs, gardens, community centres are the essential elements that we considered during planning and development of Public Rental Housing (PRH) estates.

Support and Participation

Internally, during our daily operations, we have maintained close working relationships with other government departments. As a public housing agency for the Government, we provide professional advices and undergo internal governance process to implement our public housing programme.

Externally, we always support community voluntary initiatives to contribute our efforts in the sustainable development of Hong Kong.

Significant Aspects

We understand that our operations in building construction and estate management have significant environmental, health, safety and community impacts. To avoid, minimise and mitigate significant impact arising from our daily operations, we have proactively followed the "plan-do-check-act" principle to implement a comprehensive management system. Our senior management will actively review public and stakeholder concerns through Senior Official Meeting and different customer satisfaction surveys to sense the pulse of the community.

Major potential significant aspects related to our operations include: