New Macau delivers petition on public housing

Scott Chiang

The New Macau Association (ANM) was at the Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday to deliver a petition with 1,705 signatures, requesting a clear timetable for the recovery of land by the government. The petitioners want the land to be used for the construction of more public housing and to remove the current draw-
based allocation system, which they argue should be replaced with the old scoring system.
The association collected residents’ signatures to appeal for the reinstallation of a score-based housing attribution scheme that they claim would be fairer than the one currently in use.
Speaking to reporters yesterday afternoon at the doors of the AL, ANM’s president Scott Chiang defended the virtues of the scoring system. He recalled that, for the last draw, there were “42,000 candidates for 1,900 units, and the system does not grant attribution to residents in need, which is unfair and completely ridiculous.”
According to Chiang, “A score-
based system, like we had before, will allow applicants to be sorted by priority.”
The association also urges the government to produce and release a timeline for the medium- and long-term supply of public housing, so that “people know what they can expect and how long they will need to wait before they can access a home, and also so they can be financially prepared.” RM