Accusations of housing injustice leveled against the central government by opposition presidential candidates are nothing but a smokescreen for their failures as mayors, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) said yesterday.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate, on Sunday acccused the DPP administration of mishandling housing policy and infringing on judicial neutrality at a rally in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
Chang told a news conference in Taipei that Ko and Hou “talked loudly about housing justice, but are themselves tied up with interest groups and developers.”
Photo: CNA
Local governments need to work with the central government to fight the housing crises, but Hou and Ko did not do so while in office, he said.
Hou was booed at the rally for completing a bare 2,678 social housing units and making New Taipei City the only one among the six special municipalities that does not have a property hoarding tax, Chang said.
Ko claimed to have built 50,000 social housing units in Taipei, but the city only awarded construction contracts for 12,559 units, meaning 75 percent of the former mayor’s affordable housing projects did not come to fruition, he said.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Taipei ranked first in the property price index and saw the largest drop in number of residents among the six special municipalities, he said.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) National Housing and Urban Regeneration Center has awarded contracts to speed up the construction of 33,584 housing units while giving Taipei and New Taipei City NT$4.5 billion (US$144.9 million) and NT$3 billion in housing subsidies respectively, he said.
Ko’s comments at the protest contradicted statements he had made as mayor, when he said public housing would only increase the city’s debts, said Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶), the DPP’s legislative candidate for Taipei’s Fifth Electoral District.
Some of the units in the Minglun Social Housing Project that was built under Ko’s tenure to fulfill his campaign promise of constructing affordable housing charged tenants an unaffordable NT$40,000 in monthly rent, she said.
Tseng Po-yu (曾柏瑜), the DPP’s legislative candidate for New Taipei City’s 11th Electoral District, said her opponent, KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), comes from a family with alleged links to organized crime and building contractors.
Hou backing Lo during the KMT nomination process makes a mockery of his stance on housing justice, she said.
Justin Wu (吳崢), the DPP legislative candidate for New Taipei City’s Eighth Electoral District, said his KMT opponent, Chang Chih-lun (張智倫), is the son of Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), a former lawmaker and real-estate tycoon.
Hou should not be talking about housing justice when he is an ally of speculators and local political dynasties, he said.
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