Public housing neighbor-snooping reward defended as 'creative'

Housing Authority's subsidized housing committee member Wilson Or Chong-shing praised officials for introducing a HK$3,000 reward for reporting public housing abuse, describing it as a "creative mechanism."

Expressing his support for the reward, he said: "It encourages tenants to fulfill their responsibilities, reminds each other of their obligations, and promotes the efficient use of public housing."

Or also said: "Even before the implementation of the reward system, tenants were already reporting cases of abuse to District Council members or estate offices.

"These reports included instances where tenants noticed vacant flats or observed water and electricity meter readings remaining unchanged for extended periods."

He believes the reward mechanism will not damage neighborly relationships since tenants are already aware of who resides in each flat.

The system would help the Housing Authority gain a better understanding of how public rental housing resources are being used, Or said.

Commenting on the outcome of the first round of asset declaration launched last year, Or expressed satisfaction with the effectiveness as it has since then resulted in the recovery of 450 flats, surpassing expectations.

He supported the declaration as a means of rational allocation of public housing resources, ensuring that recovered flats become available to families in greater need.

The second round of declaration, involving 250,000 households, began recently.

Or said some tenants had expressed a wish to see the declaration procedures be simplified, such as allowing them to directly declare their assets to estate offices.

Regarding the Housing Authority's intention to collaborate with mainland authorities to conduct random checks on tenants' property ownership in the mainland, Or said: "The declaration process is aimed at enabling applicants to make honest and reasonable declarations."

He was confident that checks would be carried out on a case-by-case basis.

Or also supported the idea of increasing random checks and disqualifying ineligible public rental housing applicants already on the waiting list.

Director of Housing Rosanna Law Shuk-pui had previously mentioned the proposal to conduct random checks on two percent of the waiting list applicants when sufficient manpower is available.

Or viewed these measures as having a positive impact.