Policy Address
15. Upon review at the end of last year, we have adjusted the public/private split of new housing supply under the Long Term Housing Strategy for the coming 10 years (i.e. 2019–20 to 2028–29) from 60:40 to 70:30. However, this is a medium- to long-term target; and when we can meet the target will depend on the pace of increasing land supply.
16. I now put forward the following short- and medium- term support measures:
- increasing the number of transitional housing projects substantially to provide a total of 10 000 such units within the next three years to relieve the pressure of families living in unpleasant conditions and those waiting for PRH for a long time. These units will be built on temporarily vacant government land and public facilities, as well as land lent by private developers. URA, Hong Kong Housing Society, Hong Kong Construction Association and other organisations will offer professional advice and project management support to community groups participating in transitional housing projects. Moreover, the provision set aside by the Government for transitional housing will increase from the $2 billion announced earlier to $5 billion, fully manifesting the tripartite partnership of the community, business sector and the Government. We will also continue to take forward the youth hostel projects that specifically cater for the short-term accommodation needs of young people, among which two projects providing 1 760 places will be completed in the coming two years, while another five providing about 1 600 places are in progress;
- offering relief for low-income households not living in PRH and not receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) (including people on the PRH waiting list) by providing a cash allowance. As it takes time to devise a scheme to provide the cash allowance on a regular basis, I will invite the Community Care Fund to launch two rounds of “one-off living subsidy” for the above-mentioned low-income households in the next financial year, the first round of which was announced as part of the relief measures. This will allow us time to complete the relevant study towards the end of 2020. Moreover, we also propose to increase the maximum rates of rent allowance for CSSA households;
