The HA is committed to offering PRH estates that are accessible for all ages, abilities and physical conditions. We conduct refurbishments works for aged housing estates to improve its quality, functionality and accessibility when needed.
The Lift Addition Programme is implemented to install lifts within PRH estates to allow people to access some platforms and footbridges that were only accessible by stairs, improving pedestrian access across different facilities in the PRH estates and offering a socially-inclusive community for the elderly and the disabled.
The Lift Addition Programme is implemented to install lifts within PRH estates to allow people to access some platforms and footbridges that were only accessible by stairs, improving pedestrian access across different facilities in the PRH estates and offering a socially-inclusive community for the elderly and the disabled.
The Lift Addition Programme is implemented to install lifts within PRH estates to allow people to access some platforms and footbridges that were only accessible by stairs, improving pedestrian access across different facilities in the PRH estates and offering a socially-inclusive community for the elderly and the disabled.
Public safety is of the upmost importance to create a harmonious and sustainable community. We continued to conduct building and facility maintenance and improvement (M&I) works in all existing PRH estates. In particular, we have made efforts to ensure lift and escalator safety in the existing estates. The Lift Inspection Focus Team continued to implement the audit inspection system for lifts and escalators managed by the HA. Under the Lift Modernisation Programme, all lifts aged over 25 years are inspected and assessed to determine the priority of modernisation works.
Completed modernisation of 54 lifts
The HA endeavours to communicate with tenants to understand their needs and concerns, as well as collaborating with other members in the community to promote safety and wellbeing in the living environment.
The Estate Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) is an estate-based committee which comprises estate staff, elected District Councillors and tenants’ representatives, serving as a communication channel between the HA and tenants. It aims to strengthen the sense of belonging of tenants and collective responsibility for the wellness of the community through participating in estate management matters.
Partnered with NGOs to organise about 360 community building functions to promote neighbourliness
Held over 800bi-monthly EMAC meetings
EMAC meetings
EMAC meetings
Fire is one of the most significant risks that poses threats to lives and property in PRH. With the objective to keep tenants’ high alertness on fire safety, the HA runs a year-round fire safety campaign, conducts regular fire drills, and disseminates fire safety-related educational materials.
During the year, we organised a series of “Estate Fire Safety Fun Fairs” in 33 PRH estates to deliver games and other fun activities designed to educate tenants about fire prevention at home. In addition, we continued to partner with the Fire Services Department through sending its Mobile Publicity Unit and Fire Safety Education Bus to PRH estates to disseminate the message.
Estate Fire Safety Fun Fairs held in PRH estates to educate the children about fire safety
The HA’s ‘Healthy Ageing in Public Rental Housing Estates’ programme continued its collaboration with the Department of Health’s Oral Health Education Division to provide oral health education for elderly tenants. With another partner - the School of Nursing of the University of Hong Kong, free health assessments in various housing estates were carried out through mobile health assessment stations and home visits targeting the frail and lone aged tenants.
Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, activities involving social contacts had all been cancelled in the first quarter of 2020. To make this up, online videos encouraging elderly tenants to keep fit and stay healthy by working out at home were produced and broadcast through HA’s Facebook.
Some EMACs partnered with NGOs to organise thematic community health programmes, offering regular physical activities and healthy eating advice to tenants. During the year, 17 PRH estates participated in this programme, with themes that emphasised on promoting a low- salt diet for better health and encouraging people to walk and exercise more.
Among the elderlies, EMACs also continued to partner with NGO to launch “Caring for the Elderly” programme. All EMACs organise at least one NGOs partnering function each year to deliver outreach services to the elderly tenants of the individual estates. We also encourage young people from estates or estate schools to join the visits and interact with elderly tenants. In addition to outreach services, other events for the elderly included carnivals, health promotion workshops, exhibitions and talks, and basic health assessment tests. During the year, around 160 partnering events on caring for the elderly were held while some 30 functions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
A Health Diet – Green Health Workshop for the elderly tenants
The nursing team of the University of Hong Kong provides health assessment for an elderly tenant at his home
The HA has implemented a wide variety of anti-epidemic measures in PRH estates:
The HA seeks to enhance family networks, support extended family living arrangements and encourage “ageing in place” in PRH estates through the Harmonious Families (HF) Priority Scheme, HF Transfer Scheme, HF Addition Scheme and HF Amalgamation Scheme. During the year, there were around 4,780 households benefited from the HF Schemes.
We work closely with our contractors to provide high-quality estate management and maintenance services at PRH estates. We also carefully monitor the management and maintenance performances of our contractors, as well as the working conditions of their workers.
The HA has a tendering system and multiple performance assessment systems in place to control service quality of contractors. During procurement process, we maintain Preferential Tendering Opportunities, Preferential Tender Award System and Maintenance Assessment Scoring System to reaffirm our commitment to service quality.
The Contractors Review Committee (Services) continued to review the performance of cleansing and security services contractors on quarterly basis. Services contractors given “Adverse” reports on performance would be restricted from tendering for three-months or barred from at least one service tender.
Similar to new works contractors, the HA endeavours to safeguard the health and safety of contractors’ workers for M&I works. Striving for continuous improvements, we have successfully migrated the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) to ISO 45001:2018 OHSMS for planned M&I works since June 2019. We also continued to implement and monitor the Pay for Safety Scheme for M&I contracts, independent safety audits and the Surprise Safety Inspection System.
During the year, the HA organised the Estate Management Services Contractors (EMSC) Awards to commend service contractors and their front-line staff in providing outstanding performance and encourage continuous improvement. The EMSC Awards 2019 presented a total of 43 awards to services contractors, estate managers and frontline staff.
The HA also organised the biennial Quality Public Housing Construction and Maintenance Awards 2019 with industry organisations, paying tribute to contractors, sub-contractors, project teams, supervisors and frontline workers with outstanding performances in construction and maintenance of public housing.
Quality Public Housing Construction and Maintenance Awards 2019
