The Taipei City Government is mistreating tenants under the city’s social housing policy and behaving like a “bad landlord,” the New Power Party (NPP) said yesterday.
As a result of city oversight, tenants are needlessly mistreated and “pushed around” for political purposes, NPP Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) told a news conference at the legislature.
NPP city councilor candidate Lin Po-hsun (林柏勛) said he received complaints from a Taipei resident in a social housing complex who was allotted a unit under the city’s Youth Innovation program.
Photo: CNA
Lin said the tenant was required to attend a certain number of events organized by the Taipei City Government to continue his lease.
“This person was approved for social housing due to his personal circumstances, but must face an ‘evil landlord’ that forced him to attend city-organized events during weekdays. It has severely affected his job and quality of life,” Lin said.
Joined by Chiu and NPP executive council member Lee Chao-li (李兆立), Lin said the Taipei government should stop using social housing residents to create an audience for policy presentations.
A Department of Urban Development official surnamed Lan (藍) allegedly told the resident to register at events to continue his lease, Lin said.
“This is a form of intimidation against residents of housing units under the Youth Innovation program,” Lin added.
“The resident was asked to participate in the recording of a television program, and when the segment was broadcast, he found it was an part of a government tourism advertisement campaign,” Lin said.
Qualification to reside in social housing should not be partisan, he added.
Chiu said he was angered to learn about the resident’s situation.
“The Taipei City Government is more malicious than some private landlords,” he said.
As social housing projects have received subsidies from the central government, officials at the Ministry of the Interior and the National Housing and Urban Regeneration Center should condemn this contravention of housing rights, Chiu said.
He also said that a proposal by former Taipei deputy mayor and independent mayoral candidate Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) to allow for social housing residents to purchase their units contravenes the Housing Act (住宅法).
“When government-built social housing is allowed to be sold, even when subsidized as affordable housing, property speculation is fueled and pushes up prices,” Chiu said, adding that this overall worsens affordability problems.
“Huang’s proposal is just creating a trap and shifting the problem to others. In Taipei, we need social housing only for lease, and to offer more living choices,” he added.
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