Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) promised to set up an exclusive fund for social housing and increase social housing to 10 percent of the nation’s total housing stock if elected president in January.
Speaking at a meeting with social housing activists yesterday, Tsai, the DPP’s presidential candidate, said the government should provide more social housing for the disadvantaged rather than allowing market forces to determine housing supply and prices.
“We will use multiple channels to provide more social housing, including building new housing, promoting urban renewal projects and decreasing the number of idle housing units,” Tsai said.
Tsai said house prices are too high for members of the general public, let alone those who are economically disadvantaged. Taipei’s house price to income ratio was between about eight and 10 to one in 2008, but the ratio had risen dramatically to 16 to one in the second quarter of this year, she said, adding that New Taipei City (新北市) faced a similar predicament.
With the income gap widening, the government should take measures on affordable housing, she said, pledging that if the DPP takes power in January, social housing would be for rent only and that the party would give priority to young, disadvantaged and disabled people.
Jeroen van der Veer, vice director of the Amsterdam Federation of Housing Associations, shared his association’s experiences at the meeting and Tsai vowed to take into consideration all the suggestions made by activists.
On Monday, activists are planning to hold Taiwan’s biggest-ever International Conference on Social Housing in Taipei to coincide with World Habitat Day.
Twelve professionals from the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and South Korea have been invited to discuss international social housing issues.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS