Public housing abuse tip-offs may double with reward scheme: Hong Kong minister

Hong Kong’s housing minister has estimated that reports of public home abuse could double with the launch of the government’s HK$3,000 (US$386) reward scheme for whistle-blowers, but expected only half of the cases were legitimate.

Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin on Saturday said the scheme would cost about HK$3 million in the first year and that authorities already received around 200 complaints of public rental flat misuse in the first two days of the launch.

Ho added that some complainants had mixed up the private residences with public rental flats.

The minister revealed the number of public rental flat misuse tip-offs had spiked in the past two days starting on Wednesday since the city’s main public housing provider, the Housing Authority, started awarding up to HK$3,000 to individuals who provided information allowing the government to reclaim a misused public rental flat.

“Around 200 reports were received, but we need to see whether the cases fall under our scheme … some complainants mixed up public rental flats with units under the Home Ownership Scheme and private housing,” she told a radio programme, adding that authorities had to spend time verifying each report.

She estimated the annual number of reported abuse cases would stand at around 2,600, which would be a double of the previous year when there was no such scheme, but expected only half of them could be eventually confirmed.