The Executive Yuan yesterday tabled a draft amendment to the Housing Act (住宅法) to raise the percentage of social housing units reserved for disadvantaged households from 10 percent to 30 percent as part of the government’s pledge to build 200,000 social housing units in eight years.
The amendment is to triple the percentage of housing units reserved for 12 disadvantaged groups — including low-income households, people with disabilities, homeless people, senior citizens, Aborigines, disasters victims, parents with three or more children, domestic violence victims and people with HIV/AIDS — Deputy Minister of the Interior Hua Ching-chun (花敬群) said.
A certain number of social housing units in a given city are to be reserved for those who do not have a registered residency in the city to render assistance to those working away from home, especially young people, he said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
To boost the use of vacant private properties for social housing, long-term care and child care, the amendment grants tax exemptions to social housing landlords and managers, Hua said.
The amendment also stipulates three rental levels for different households according to their economic status.
“We used to adopt a fixed pricing scheme for social housing according to the principle of impartiality. However, true residential justice is to give different levels of assistance to different people, which also means a better use of government resources,” Hua said.
Although there are households in need of permanent government assistance, social housing is limited to a maximum of 12 years, he said.
While local governments are unable to promise permanent residency to disadvantaged households due to the limited supply of housing, the central government will try to assist those households in securing longer tenancies, he said.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said the amendment would build quality and barrier-free residential facilities to implement President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) residential policy.
The amendment is a priority bill and is expected to clear the floor in the next legislative session, Lin said, calling for increased communication between the legislature and the Executive Yuan to speed up the process.
The amendment was finalized yesterday after weeks of discussion, overturning the Executive Yuan’s original plan to fix the percentage of reserved social housing units at 20 percent and axe the criteria for eligibility.
The Executive Yuan dropped the plan following a protest by housing rights activists on Thursday last week and a negotiation with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus on Monday.
Hua said the Executive Yuan agreed to the 30 percent reserve requirement in accordance with the DPP’s social welfare policy.
The eligibility criteria, which the Executive Yuan mulled dropping to prevent disadvantaged tenants from being labeled as such, are to be maintained to ensure tenancy rights, he said.
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