An evaluation of the Senior Citizens Residences Scheme (SEN): its successfulness and future improvementopportunities

Abstract

Ageing population has been an urging problem all over the world. Planners from the respective governments are thus requested to review the existing housing provisions to cater for the increasing housing demand of the elderly persons. With almost 19.5% of the total population are classified as persons over the age of sixties in year 2011, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the Government) has been taking proactive measures to plan for this group of the silver-haired. With public rental housing and other scheme like the Home Ownership Scheme being offered in the market by both the public and private sectors, it was noted that the housing need for the middle income group elderly persons was often left unattended. More than that, housing units provided with necessary health care service are required to fulfill the requirement of “health ageing”. In this respect, the Hong Kong Housing Society (the HKHS) has introduced a program named the Senior Citizen Residence Scheme (the SEN Scheme) a decade ago. Currently there are two housing estates, offering hundreds of housing units, with purposely built housing design. This type of residential care development with health service is planned to target the housing need of elderly persons from the middle income group. Not only their housing demand is addressed, the requirement for medical and nursing care services is also entertained. This paper is then written to study the various aspects of the SEN Scheme, from both the hardware and software perspectives. Based on the comments received from the questionnaires distributed to the elderly persons residing in the two housing estates, recommendations will then be given for future improvement of the program. With the number of recommendations to be given, the problems of the SEN Scheme could be addressed and make it more comprehensive and appealing to the elderly persons.