Reflections on Old Age Poverty in Public Rental Housing Estates

2017 ◽  
pp. 284-288
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Public Rental Housing ◽  
Old Age Poverty ◽  
Housing Estates

Reflections on Old Age Poverty in Public Rental Housing Estates

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Chim Richard Wong
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Market Value ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Rental Housing ◽  
Old Age Poverty ◽  
Nontraded Assets ◽  
Housing Estates ◽  
Housing Units

Privatizing the public rental housing estates would create a very large client pool of elderly homeowners willing to take advantage of mortgage-backed annuity schemes in the era of modern finance. This would create better opportunities for diversifying risks associated with the uncertainty of life expectancy. A bigger market could lead to better terms to the benefit of all participants. And, if the elderly poor in our public housing estates became homeowners, perhaps their children would pay them more attention. In principle, recurrent government funding is not required because it would be financed by land that currently has no market value because public rental housing units are nontraded assets. Selling public rental housing units to sitting tenants would restore the market value of a non- traded asset that could provide old age support for elderly people.

Growing up in Hong Kong before and after 1980

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Chim Richard Wong
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Public Rental Housing ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
Poor Children ◽  
Housing Estates ◽  
Housing Units

Hong Kong’s public housing estates are transforming into areas of growing poverty, with more divorced households. They are increasingly weak neighborhoods for motivating children to higher aspirations. There are doubts about the wisdom of continuing the development of more public rental housing units to solve our shortage of housing units. A far better solution is to build subsidized homes for ownership so that families have a stake to stay together and work for a better future. By keeping families together, more children will be prevented from falling into a state of disadvantage that will be detrimental to their future upward social mobility. Why foster and concentrate the poor and the divorced in publicly subsidized ghettos? Poor children deserve a better deal. A city of homeowners is also less politically divided.

scholarly journals Trends of out-mobility from large housing estates in Stockholm: influences of the housing policy and neighbourhood context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Kadarik ◽  
Anneli Kährik
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Housing Policy ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Public Rental Housing ◽  
Large Housing Estates ◽  
Housing Estates

AbstractSince 1990s Stockholm housing market has seen deregulations in accordance with liberalization trends in other European welfare states. The new governance principles together with increasing immigration and public rental housing conversions into cooperative housing in attractive inner city areas have put pressure on still rental-dominated estates because fewer rental dwellings must now cater to expanding numbers of people who have little choice on the housing market. In recent decades, many estates have displayed increasing signs of stigmatization, social exclusion, and outflow of relatively affluent people. This paper improves our knowledge of how the housing policy and economic changes have affected out-mobility from the housing estates in case of three cohorts of young people and how the childhood neighbourhood conditions affect this. Individual annual Swedish registry data (1990–2014) are employed to longitudinally study the out-mobility patterns of three cohorts that grew up in the estates against the backdrop of marketization, growing inequality and deteriorating conditions. This study supplements the existing literature on housing estates by clarifying how income has become more and ethnicity less important over time in explaining sorting patterns from these estates. However, the combination of the two has determined sorting throughout the study period. Growing up in a higher socioeconomic status neighbourhood had modest impact on reducing socioeconomic differences in out-mobility from the estates, while leading to more sorting based on ethnic background.

Critical evaluation of ‘ageing in place’ in redeveloped public rental housing estates in Hong Kong

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 2006-2039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayantha Wadu Mesthrige ◽  
Siu Leung Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Community Care ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Ageing In Place ◽  
Housing Design ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Macro Scale ◽  
Public Rental Housing ◽  
Housing Estates

AbstractThe tremendous growth in the ageing population over the past two decades has compelled the Hong Kong government to reformulate its housing policy by redeveloping and incorporating certain age-friendly housing design elements and facilities into the public housing schemes built in the post-war period. This research investigates whether these introduced design elements and facilities satisfy the numerous special needs of the seniors in line with the concept of ‘ageing in place’. Data were collected from 224 seniors through a comprehensive questionnaire survey in four large-scale redeveloped public rental housing estates. Using three designated built environment dimensions, namely micro, meso and macro, the results revealed that senior tenants were generally satisfied with the present living environments (in all the three scales) in the estates. At the micro-scale, seniors were satisfied with the level of privacy and sense of autonomy derived from the present design features in their homes. For the meso-scale, the study revealed that the seniors were particularly satisfied with the design elements such as convenient transportation and accessibility, including convenient walkways. At the macro-scale, the community care service is deemed important for seniors’ wellbeing. However, more attention is needed on safety measures in interior and shower areas, public seating in common areas and provision of sufficient community care services. This study provides insights for policy makers and development authorities on elderly housing provision.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document