Taipei mayoral candidates comment on tackling capital’s housing problems

Taipei mayoral candidates comment on tackling capital’s housing problems

2022-08-29

The issue of affordable housing has long been a challenge for the Taipei City government, and one that the incumbent administration has been criticized over. With the local elections just around the corner, the three candidates for Taipei mayor have given glimpses of how they would deal with the issue.

DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung attends the Imageable City exhibition, listening attentively as the curator explains an installation.

Chen was the first of the city’s three mayoral candidates to bring up the issue of urban renewal. Some of expressed curiosity over what his thoughts are on incumbent Mayor Ko Wen-je’s progress on the issue over eight years in office.

Chen Shih-chung
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate
We’ve come up with ideas, and have taken input from experts. The next step will be for us to get a better understanding of the issue, to discuss it with more people, and then we can implement rolling amendments. Any city government, including that of Mayor Ko will work on the issue a long time, and will certainly encounter difficulties. In terms of finding where the difficulties lay and figuring out how to overcome them – that’s not something that can be solved through just talking about it.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Huang Shan-shan is also now formally in the race, after she recently tendered her resignation. Huang has come under fire from the KMT, who criticized her advocacy for transcending party lines, calling her a political chameleon. The KMT says Huang is a fence sitter who reaps benefits from both sides of the political spectrum. Chen has not shared in these attacks on her.

Chen Shih-chung
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate
However she wants to change is up to her – everyone goes through changes. Using this to attack her as being a so-called chameleon is unfair, I feel. After all, within the pan-blue camp there are also some people who frequently change their stance on things.

The day after announcing her bid for mayor, Huang met with the operators of some smaller hotels to discuss a proposal. Huang suggested that older hotels could be renovated and converted into rental properties for older adults.

Huang Shan-shan
Independent Taipei mayor candidate
We would help older adults by managing their properties for them, and renting them out to younger people – and the rent would be comparable to that of social housing. I think this would be in line with our goals to implement housing justice.

The day before, Chen also issued a white paper on housing justice, saying the city should build 50,000 social-housing units within four years. However, Huang disagreed with the idea.

Huang Shan-shan
Independent Taipei mayor candidate
Social housing isn’t something you can just call for today, and then tomorrow it will appear. Why do we need to cooperate with private companies? Because the city spent eight years trying its best to build more social housing complexes, we really tried very hard to build them, but building social housing is not that simple. The neighbors always have so many opinions on the matter.

Huang held a press conference on the issue of social housing. But critics say she didn’t handle the issue well as deputy mayor and that she would just become another Mayor Ko. Seeing the criticisms against Huang emerge, fellow candidate Chiang Wan-an from the KMT seized the opportunity to express his stance.

Chiang Wan-an
KMT Taipei mayoral candidate
Having young and old switch housing would be a win-win scenario. The Taipei government previously said it already had been working on it, but they actually didn’t start until March this year – and nothing has been implemented. If the government is going to handle urban renewal, we have to expand capacity and lower the threshold, and the government has to get involved as soon as possible.

With three candidates now in the race for Taipei mayor, things are heating up. The candidates have already faced off over the issue of housing, and given voters a glimpse of their policies on a key issue.