Housing for the elders in Hong Kong : arrangement of housing policy to cater for the special needs of the elders

Abstract

Aging population is a worldwide phenomenon and Hong Kong is of no exception. Around 13% of the total population was aged over 65 in mid-2011 and it is projected to follow a remarkable rising trend in the future. In view of this and the increasing housing demand of the elderly people, the Hong Kong Government has adopted the concept of “Aging in Place” and “Community Care” to initiate a serious of housing policies and provisions to cater for the various special needs of the low-income elderly. For those middle-income elderly who are outside the “welfare net” of the government, the Hong Kong Housing Society has implemented the “Senior Citizen Residences Scheme” a decade ago which offers a choice of residence for them to live a safe, comfortable and independent lifestyle with provision of integrated elderly care services.

In this paper, the eligibility, scheme features, housing facilities, provision of services, operation arrangements and community supports of Housing for Senior Citizens (HSC) provided by the HKHA and Senior Citizen Residences Scheme (SEN) provided by the HKHS will be studied to evaluate the effectiveness of the housing schemes provided by both organizations. Factors that contribute to life satisfaction and successful aging of the elderly will be further looked into. Based on the comments collected from the questionnaires distributed to the elderly residents of the HKHA and HKHS housing estates under study, recommendations will then be given for future improvement of the housing policies.