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SCMP Reporter

MORE public estate tenants could face eviction for failing to pay rent if unemployment keeps growing, watchdogs have warned.

Statistics show a sharp rise in defaulter cases as a result of the economic downturn.

The rise has coincided with a big jump in the number of applications for a cut in rent from public tenants finding difficulties paying their bills.

The Housing Department was being urged to waive rents temporarily for poverty-stricken or jobless tenants.

 Rents average about $1,120 a month.

A spokesman for the Society for Community Organisations, Ng Wai-tung, said: 'The department should contact the tenants directly to offer help, instead of asking them to apply.

'If the department can think of ways to pin down on the wealthy tenants, there is no reason why they cannot . . . help the poor.'  Department statistics show the number of defaulters rose from 8,266 in the third quarter of 1993 to 11,799 in the same period last year, a rise of 42.7 per cent.

At the end of last September, the defaulters owed a total of $14.7 million in rents to the department; most were one month overdue.

A department spokesman said it did not consider the situation serious, as the rise was insignificant in percentage terms.

 The defaulters were said by the department to represent less than two per cent of the total number of tenants on public estates.

The department evicted 209 tenants for rent arrears in the first 11 months last year, compared with 156 for the whole of 1994.

But the spokesman noted that not all of the cases were due to financial difficulties.

Tenant Ma Wong Choi-yu, of Shun Tin Estate, Kwun Tong, was on the brink of being evicted for failing to pay rent after her husband lost his job several months ago.

 Mrs Ma, who successfully applied for a 50 per cent discount in rents last November, said: 'We still have to pay $403 a month. But my husband has so far failed to secure a job.

'We are living on our savings but we worry that they cannot last for much longer.' She said many poor tenants were hard hit by the recession and the department should help them.

The jobless rate has risen from 2.8 per cent in the first quarter of last year to an 11-year high of 3.6 per cent last month.

In the meantime, more tenants applied for rent relief. Last year, up to November, 455 families had applied, compared with 164 for 1994 and 149 for 1993.

The department said: 'We believe the rise can be attributed to the relaxation of rent assistance from last September and the subsequent publicity drive.' Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy chief executive Virginia Ip Chiu-ping said: 'That there are more people applying implies that tenants are getting poorer. They simply cannot afford the high rent.' 



Eviction fears as rents loom