Fewer social housing units are being built due to land scarcity, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday, adding that it is shifting focus to accelerating lease and management services.
President William Lai (賴清德) during his 2024 presidential campaign pledged to launch a “1 million renter household support program,” aiming to build 250,000 social housing units by 2032 — an additional 130,000 units on top of the 120,000 social housing units under former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — place 250,000 units in the lease and management program, and provide 500,000 households with rent subsidies.
The government’s lease and management program aims to facilitate the rental of otherwise unused and empty properties to disadvantaged families, students and workers.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
As of the end of last month, 122,680 units of new social welfare housing had been built, 104,803 units had been leased under the government’s lease program, and 913,867 people had applied for rental subsidies, ministry statistics showed.
The ministry in a release said that the government plans to expand the lease and management program to 320,000 units, adding that its goal of supporting 1 million renter households remains unchanged.
As a result of the targets set by the Presidential Office’s Climate Change Committee, the residential and commercial sectors’ carbon emissions must be reduced by 35 percent by 2030, the ministry said.
The adoption of the lease and management program is 30 to 40 percent more effective in reducing carbon emissions than building social housing, it said.
The program could help meet housing needs while supporting carbon reduction goals and environmental protection, it said.
Due to slow construction of social housing, scarce land and slow acquisition, fewer social housing units would be built, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said yesterday.
The ministry would focus on accelerating the lease and management program, she said.
The Tsai administration planned 120,000 social housing units, and the Lai administration is moving in the same direction, she said, adding that progress has been slow due to land scarcity, and existing projects would not be completed in the next two years.
The government is struggling to find plots of land in prime real-estate areas, Liu said.
If social welfare housing is built outside prime areas, it would struggle to attract residents, she added.
“The number of households to benefit from the three strategies combined would add up to 1 million,” she said.
Taiwan has about 910,000 vacant homes, she said.
The ministry has a goal for the lease and management program to reach 320,000 units, Liu said.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Dong Jian-hong (董建宏) said the ministry would work with local governments to provide housing for temporary residents such as students.
The government would also explore encouraging community-driven urban renewal programs and introducing old housing life-extension programs, he said.
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