published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The ageing population is growing rapidly in Hong Kong. In addition, the distribution of the elderly concentrates to live in the old urban districts including Central and Western, Wan Chai, Eastern, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Yau Tsim Mong. In order to provide care services for elderly people, the principle of “ageing of place” is adopted by the government aim to the elderly live in a familiar environment. In order to provide a suitable living environment for the elderly, the government has implemented a series of policies on housing, recreational facilities and social elderly services for the elderly who live in the old urban districts. In order to understand whether the elderly are satisfied with the services to be provided by the government, three districts including Central and Western district, Eastern district and Wan Chai district are picked up as target of study which are a high proportion of the elderly living in. Opinions are demanded from the elderly and the representatives of Owners’ Corporation who live in these districts in order to investigate the perception of existence living environment, the recognition of the financial incentive schemes, the most important facilities and elderly services for them in daily life, the satisfaction level of the recreational facilities and the social elderly centre and the importance of maintenance of relationship with neighbours in the old urban districts. The paper finally raised several recommendations for improvement of living environment and elderly services in the old urban districts. They are providing better facilities for the elderly, increasing amount of financial incentive providing more funding for the non-government organization, providing sufficient place for the social elderly centre, providing more recreational facilities and enhancing service delivery. With the better living environment and sufficient of elderly services, the elderly can maintain a healthy life in the old urban districts. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The population of Hong Kong is aging very rapidly. When the Chief Executive appealed to the community to care for our elderly and to make them feel a sense of belonging, the question immediately comes to our mind is that how well our senior citizens are housed and their needs served. After studied the literatures and research, I found most of the elderly would like to stay in their own home that is now called the idea of Aging in Place. So I take this opportunity to evaluate the performance of the Hong Kong Housing Society, This study referred from the forms of elderly housing and policy available in five overseas countries, all of them are located at Asia. The research done in this study reveals that the elderly want to stay in their own home in their later life and also some improvements needed to be made for the aging in place successful in the Housing Society's public rental housing estates. To enable our senior citizens to live independently with dignity in their twilight years, it is necessary to have the provision of a spectrum of services in the estate community to ensure that the elderly can continue to live in the familiar environment even when their self-care ability deteriorates. Simultaneously, efforts should also be initiated by the Housing Society to depart from its traditional design by incorporating barrier-free and elderly-friendly features into the built environment and the housing units of the rental housing estates. Recommendations on how to serve the elderly better by providing quality housing covering the physical and the social aspects are put forward. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Aging problem is continually increasing and fertility rates are declining in Hong Kong. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“The HKSAR Government”) concerns on the long-term care for elderly people. To compare with other developed countries, the retirement protection for elderly people in Hong Kong needs more comprehensive improvement on long-term care expenses. Actually, not many appropriate options of long-term care expenses are seemed available in Hong Kong. Revere mortgage (“RM”) is a way to unlock home equity into regular cash flows without moving out of the house. Reverse mortgage is an emergency financial tool in Hong Kong. The rationale of reverse mortgage is to help the elderly homeowners to convert housing equity to improve their living standard in retirement. Although the Mandatory Provident Fund (“MPF”) was launched in Hong Kong since 2000 and has been operating for more than 10 years, the overall performance of the MPF is less than general expectation of participants that have negative impacts on their retirement plan. The majority of Hong Kong people including the elderly homeowners may not enjoy sufficient protection from MPF after retirement. Similar reverse mortgage programmes have been practicing in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, India, Korea, Japan and Singapore. In contrast, reverse mortgage market is newly growth in Hong Kong. On the other hand, reverse mortgage programmes are tried out in Singapore, India and Korea. In the research, experience of those countries can provide comprehensive and valuable information for references in order to understand more the benefits and drawbacks of reverse mortgage to Hong Kong. Therefore, this dissertation is conducted in several perspectives in Hong Kong in order to show the feasibility of reverse mortgage programme in Hong Kong. It is worth to study whether reverse mortgage could become long-term care expenses for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners, whose residential property has high market value, in Hong Kong. In the dissertation, it is showed that the potential applicants have expectation on reverse mortgage assisting them to overcome their financial burden in the long-term care. The majority of housing values in Hong Kong are adopted to refinance for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners after their retirement. Furthermore, examination of the alternative housing options is whether to be considered for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners. On the other hands, risks and benefits of potential providers of reverse mortgage programme are examined in the dissertation. Further studies on the HKSAR Government in relation to social responsibility, financial issues and regulation issues are conducted. Based on this analysis from different views and aspects, the dissertation is tried to study the feasibility of reverse mortgage whether become long-term care expenses for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners. In addition, it is to understand not only reverse mortgage can whether overcome financial burden for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners, but also understand the perspectives of society, banks and government on reverse mortgage. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Various studies from different universities indicated that Hong Kong is facing a serious housing problem especially for the singleton elderly. Lack of a viable retirement protection and the new trend of married children to live away their parents causes the elders become the major group of poor living alone in the sub-standard housing units in the old urban districts. The high demand for private flats has provided the impetus for private developers to launch the urban redevelopment projects. In the course of carrying out the redevelopment projects, the elders were forced to displace to a strange new community which makes them lost the social support and impairs their mental well-being. In addition, lack of offering local community relocation would discourage the elders to improve their living condition by opting for re-housing. By contrast, other scholar alleged that the physical characteristics of the housing environment are the major concern which affects the elder’s residential satisfactory the most and the social support from friends and neighbors played only a minor and insignificant role. In order to explore the factors affecting the relocation choice of the elders upon urban redevelopment, personal in-depth interviews were conducted for 42 elders selected from 3 newly launched urban redevelopment projects. The findings shows that the elders desire for a self-contained public housing unit for improving their living condition but they would give up the chance if the local community relocation is not guaranteed. It is concluded that the elders would sacrifice their living condition in exchange of the local community continuity. Furthermore, the financial ability is the most crucial factor affecting their decision of the living arrangement and their residential satisfactory. Recommendations were proposed to URA for offering the needed elderly local community relocation by building their own rehousing blocks in the targeted districts. Moreover, the URA should focus on promoting building rehabilitation as the alternative for solving the problem of urban decay while would not impair the life of the poverty elders living in the old urban areas. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Since the growing aging population in Hong Kong and most of the elderly living under various public housing estates. Over the years, public housing program in Hong Kong have been expanding and now provides residence to a significant elder people in Hong Kong. For aged public housing estates which accommodate the majority of the elderly with inadequate facilities both in interior unit and in exterior to meet their daily needs while their physical capability deteriorating. Therefore, “Aging in place” become the better housing option for elder people to maintain the greater autonomy and be less dependent on other sources of assistance with adequate supportive services and facilities. Under this circumstance, elder people prefer to reside in the community or place which they have a strong sense of attachment and familiarize with. However, the redevelopment projects for the aged public housing estates pose a considerable threat to implement the “Aging in place” because this change the living environment for the elderly and relocation to other living places may not be able to accommodate the elderly needs for social connection. Therefore, we need to examine and assess the applicability of “Aging in place” under the redevelopment of public housing estates Through the literature review, “Aging in place” is defined to promote one’s ability to live in their current residence safely, comfortably and independently without moving. Also, this study is to investigate the concept of “Aging in place” has been used in planning and design stages of a public housing estate. In this regard, Pak Tin estate was used as case study. The findings showed that there were two blocks built as Senior Housing with standardized facilities and design to meet the housing needs for the elderly. The rest of the general public housing blocks did carry out the concept of “Universal Design” in communal area to assist the elderly in daily living. In future planning, demand a holistic approach among the concerned bureaux and departments in planning. The concept of “Aging in place” has been achieved in Pak Tin estate is assessed through conducting in-depth interview with elder people and stakeholders in Pak Tin estate. The findings showed that Senior Housing blocks are not popular with elder people because the interior design approaches of the unit cannot meet the housing needs for the elderly. While the general public housing in interior design is relatively acceptable to the elder resident upon modification of the unit and introduce the concept of “Universal Design” in the unit. The District and Community facilities are sufficient to assist the elder people in daily living and sometimes required to access other districts for necessary services which not available in the District. The improvement measures should be drawn to enhance accessible fitness facilities, offer various health services in the estate and district. For the community support service and social connection, the service provider is the Non-profit making organization which funded by the government. These NGOs offered the supportive services are praised by the elder resident to “Aging in place” and stay in the community. The attention should be drawn to cater for elder peope’s needs for social activities in planning and design of “Open spaces” and thus strengthen the neighborhood support. After consolidation and analysis of ideas from a case study and opinion from elder residents and stakeholder in Pak Tin estate, we recommended that the Design specification and approach in future blocks in public housing estate, Planning and Design Approach in Surrounding Area of Estate and District, Planning in Open Spaces for Community service and social connection and the HA’s role in implementing “Aging in place” should be reviewed in order to meet the housing needs of the elder residents. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The urban redevelopment will be a trend and mainstream in the development of housing needs. In addition to the elderly problems in some old city districts, improvement in living standard, housing needs as well as to preserve the historical buildings are the concern in the redevelopment of a new urban. The ageing problem with related to the housing development in the urban redevelopment projects are the focus in this research study. It aims to understanding the elderly problem in the progress of the redevelopment projects and the needs that can satisfy the elderly people as they have been the labor group to promote Hong Kong’s prosperity in the early century. The elderly people deserved to have a better living of environment. By conducting the in depth interview with the social worker/ volunteer and the questionnaires with the elderly people, more information will be revealed on the thoughts and needs of the elderly people and turning out to suggest and recommend for improving the urban redevelopment to the URA. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Housing is not only a shelter, but also the basic component of elderly’s well-being because it is a place for sustaining family and social connections, and most elderly persons wish to age in their own home as long as possible. The rapid ageing population in Hong Kong has lead to the continuous rise of the old age dependency ratio. Therefore, the Hong Kong government has pick up most of the caregiving responsibility by providing public rental housing, financial assistant, and elderly-care services to the elderly. However, ageing is a complicated process and meeting the needs of the elderly are not a simple task. Thus, the formal and informal social networks will need to work together in order to provide a more comprehensive services to the elderly and enhance the quality of the life of the elderly. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / "31 December 1993." Includes bibliographical references.