Data do not support rumors that government rental subsidies caused a general increase in rent, but they have helped alleviate subsidized individuals’ financial stress by 40 to 50 percent, Deputy Minister of the Interior Tung Chien-hung (董建宏) said yesterday.
Tung made the rebuttal at a seminar hosted by the Ministry of the Interior on rental policies supporting families.
Incidents of people receiving subsidies when they did not need them were due to a change in their status during the review process, Tung said, adding that the government has asked all such people to return the subsidies.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Anyone attempting to benefit from the subsidies by using false contracts or falsifying information would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, he said.
Tung said the planned rent subsidy expansion is expected to cost the government NT$350 billion (US$10.97 billion).
The government would also reduce bureaucratic red tape to increase eligibility, he said.
Delivering housing justice should be a consensus among society and is a critical government goal, he added.
Subsidies would be available to 750,000 renters starting next year, up 250,000 from this year’s 500,000, he said.
He added that off-campus rental subsidies for disadvantaged students have also been available since Aug. 15.
More than 277 state-owned buildings, including aging dorms, under different government agencies have been identified as potential sites for social housing which would include facilities for sports, industry, transportation, education and healthcare, he said.
Commenting on the government’s policy of subsidizing rent for low-income and disadvantaged households, Tung said the policy had benefitted 120,000 people since its promulgation in 2017.
The policy’s next step is to match social housing with the disadvantaged more closely, pool resources and improve the overall system, Tung said.
The seminar provided the ministry with valuable opinions, Tung said, vowing to continue to work with government agencies and relevant groups to improve existing policies and see how such policies could tie into the government’s carbon-zero policies.
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