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Rental subsidy program ‘coming soon’: ministry

A total of 24,000 low-income and disadvantaged families will benefit this year from a rent subsidy program to be launched soon, the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency said yesterday.

Under the program, subsidies of up to NT$3,000 will be provided each month to qualified families to help them cover their rental costs.

The agency said preference would be given to disadvantaged groups such as the physically and mentally challenged, single parent families, Aboriginal people and victims of natural disasters.

The figure of 24,000 families to benefit from the program is double the number assisted under a similar program implemented last year, the agency said.

Applications for the rent subsidies will be accepted between July 15 and Aug. 15, the agency said, adding that interested families can apply at their local household registry office.

The agency said its goal is to enable all citizens to find suitable housing and that it has launched a series of similar programs, including one to provide subsidized home loans interest-free for the first two years to low and middle-income young newlyweds.

In related news, Huang Ching-mao (黃景茂), deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior’s (MOI) Construction and Planning Agency, said on Friday that a total of 30,000 couples are expected to benefit during the first year of a program soon to be launched that will subsidize young couples renting a home or borrowing to buy a home.

RENTAL AND PURCHASE

The openings will include 20,000 opportunities for a rental subsidy of NT$3,600 per month for two years and 10,000 opportunities for a NT$2 million government-subsidized home loan that will be interest-free for the first two years, Huang said.

Eligible applicants will include middle-and-low income earners aged 20 to 40 who got married within two years of the date of application or who have children under 20 or adult children who are still studying, Huang said.

To help loan borrowers better understand the financial burden they will undertake from the third year, when they will have to begin paying interest, the MOI will provide counseling to all successful applicants prior to finalizing the loan, he said.

BUDGET PLANS

Huang said the ministry would forward the project to the Cabinet for approval as soon as its details are finalized, and will include it in the government’s budget plan for next year.

The program will be implemented next year, as long as the budget is approved by the Legislative Yuan, he said.

Huang said the estimated cost of the program to the government is NT$1.5 billion a year, with each couple borrowing for a home loan to be subsidized NT$67,900 per year and each home-renting couple to be subsidized NT$43,200 per year.
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