Local youth want expedited public housing construction: survey

Local youth are confident in the current government, but are pinning their hopes on it to speed up the construction of public housing, according to a poll jointly conducted by the União Geral das Associações dos Moradores de Macau and the Neighborhood Youth Association of Macau.
The respondents of the survey believe that public housing should be placed at the top of the government’s agenda in the coming year, with over 50% of them pleading for some 40,000 public housing units to be delivered at a faster pace.
In particular, most surveyed youngsters called on the government to formulate a comprehensive plan to address the shortage of affordable housing, so as to ensure a constant and stable supply of public housing in the medium and long run.
The shortage of affordable housing has been a chronic problem for locals who have not been able to afford high housing prices and have had to queue for public housing for a remarkably long stretch.
To assuage public worries, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo Arrais do Rosário advised in a meeting with Legislative Assembly (AL) legislators, that the construction of 80% of the planned 28,000 public housing units for New Area Zone A will be commenced in phases between 2021 and 2024.
Rosário also stated that the public housing works planned for the 138-hectare reclaimed area will create a constant supply of social housing in the next 10 years.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng will deliver his 2021 Policy Address today in the chamber of the Legislative Assembly (AL), where he will delineate plans to address a slew of local concerns, including that relating to affordable housing.
In the survey, youngsters claimed that the government should also prioritize work on social security, welfare policies, the public healthcare system, economic development, local employment and transportation.
Particularly, they suggest extending social measures such as the Wealth Partaking Scheme, which is a cash disbursement that has been doled out to Macau residents since 2008. Other proposals are to use the talent database to advantage, implement talent training schemes, and to loosen pandemic-related restrictions by extending the validity period of the nucleic acid test.
The associations interviewed 1,084 local people, aged 18 to 45, in October this year, through random sampling on streets.