Affordable housing shortage draws protests

Leong Veng Chai submitted a petition to the government yesterday

Public demand for affordable housing has intensified, after a long-awaited ballot draw early last week shattered over 40,000 applicants’ dreams of owning a house at an affordable price. Civil organizations now seek to marshal citizens’ strength and reinstall a defunct regime that guarantees applicants a flat as part of a long-term arrangement.
A demonstration is being planned for this coming Sunday afternoon, organized by the Macau Community Development Initiative (MCDI), which is supported by lawmakers Au Kam San and Ng Kuok Cheong. Prior to the demonstration, an improvised concern group told media in a press conference that they aimed to exert pressure on the authorities to build 40,000 housing units – a quantity responsive to the number of those unsuccessful applicants who entered the draw –
before 2019.
Additionally, the protesters want to pressure the government to bring back the former system used to select eligible grantees for the scarce affordable housing units.
According to the current mode, potential grantees were categorized according to three groups, with families consisting of blood-
relatives prioritized, followed by families with members not directly related to each other, and then by individuals.
“You would therefore know how long you have to wait, being hopeful, when there’s a queue, whereas the draw mode seems ‘less prudent’ and ‘perfunctory.’” said Jeremy Lei, vice- president of the MCDI, referring to the preceding system that allowed applicants to continue waiting for flats that are under construction. It was just a matter of time.
Those families who fail to secure a flat in the draw must return for another round, but are probably assigned the same classification in a draw that also favors families with aged and junior members. Leong Ka Fai, another young member of the concern group, expressed his disappointment with the current system, through which he believed it would take an “infinite” amount of time for him to be eligible for an affordable home.
“We couldn’t rival other families with elderly members and minors,” he said, noting that he hails from a family of three. “Chui has promised us a ‘sunny government,’” said another member in his fifties. “Let’s not turn teenagers into ‘housing slaves’ who’d end up working hard for nothing.”
Another two members, Cloee Chao and Ieong Man Teng, also well-known activists in gaming-­related issues, said that there were sufficient land reserves available to satisfy housing requirements, according to their own estimates.
On Wednesday, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo Rosario, asserted on the sidelines of a ceremony that the authorities have yet to recover even one idle land swathe for development, while also downplaying the upcoming march. “It’s everyone’s right to demonstrate, and it’s also normal to have differing views,” he said.
Ieong expressed his belief that the official’s remarks might have triggered fresh resentment, further boosting the turnout of the march.

gaming group joins protest

Power of the Macao Gaming Association convenor Stephen Lau and lawmaker Leong Veng Chai submitted a petition to the government yesterday morning, urging for a “clear mechanism” for afforda-
ble housing applicants. “There should be an exact schedule as to how many economic housing units would come up for eligible citizens,” Lau told media. “The authorities have got to deliver a message to citizens as to how long they have to wait, how to be eligible, when and how many [units] are available.” Lau believes the city’s leader Chui Sai On would address the plight facing many families in his November policy address. “It’s almost impossible for Macau youth to own a flat,” he added. “It’s pretty much the same when it comes to some middle-class citizens.”