In an effort to combat abuse of public housing resources, the government has recovered approximately 9,000 public rental housing (PRH) flats from July 2022 to June 2025, according to Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin.
In a social media post on Thursday (Aug 7), Ho mentioned her recent participation in a forum where she and her team shared works on tackling public housing abuse with lawmakers, district officers and their assistants.
She noted that the recovery of these public housing units has resulted in saving more than HK$9 billion in construction expenditures for the government.
The housing chief elaborated on the enhancements to the "Well-off Tenants Policy," detailing the rules and principles, appeal mechanisms, and the progress made toward criminalizing serious tenancy abuse in public housing.
To equip frontline staff with essential investigative and surveillance techniques, Ho revealed the establishment of a new task force composed of retired disciplined service personnel who will provide insights and training on identifying hidden cases of public housing abuse through subtle clues.
During the forum, one of the task force leaders was invited to share practical tips for recognizing cases of public housing misuse, utilizing limited resources such as online information and media reports.
Expressing gratitude for the opportunity to raise public awareness about the Housing Authority's work, Ho hopes that such interactions will further strengthen collaboration with the community to protect public housing resources.
