Department of Urban Development, Taipei City Government

This afternoon, the annual “Home Year-End Party” was held by the Department of Urban Development for Young Innovators of the Taipei City Social Housing Young Innovator Contribution Program. From 7 bases, a total of 197 young innovators in housing gathered at the POPOP Taipei. Mayor Ko also attended the meetup to present awards to outstanding young innovators, hoping these young stars can together create a new, even better kind of social housing lifestyles.

According to Huang I-Ping, Commissioner of the Department of Urban Development, the main purpose of today’s meetup is for young innovators living in different social housing areas to exchange views and experience on executing the Young Innovator Program. These young people, members of the programs, members of the City Government’s Young Innovator Committee, and the Department of Urban Development discussed how to continue to deepen the connection between neighbors through such activities and form a virtuous circle, in order to fulfill the object of the “good living, good neighborhood and good life” policy.

At the meetup, a video of the achievements of Dongming’s social housing youth team was played, deeply moving the Mayor. During Mayor Ko’s speech, he once again mentioned the 4 major strategic goals of social housing: housing justice, urban aesthetics, smart buildings, and new community lifestyles. Among these goals, housing justice includes social housing, a reasonable tax system, and rent subsidies. He also mentioned that these young innovators account for 10% of the power in social housing and are the basis for creating new community lifestyles. Furthermore, Ko also encouraged the young innovators to find their own sense of accomplishment in the project, which may lead them to find more friends who share the same interests. Ko hoped that the public would recommend the project to their good friends and apply to become young innovators in housing projects.

He further elaborated: “a policy must leave room for failure. While Taipei City works hard to build ‘hardware’ social housing, it at the same time strives to provide corresponding ‘software’ services. The Young Innovator Program allows everybody involved to repeatedly create and experiment in social housing. This not only helps these youngsters find their interests, it also transforms and improves the City Government’s social housing services. It is because of everyone’s involvement that we are able to further improve social housing.”

The Department of Urban Development stated that young innovator candidates for the Xiaowang and Xing-Sang projects have entered the evaluation stage, and results will be announced in the first quarter of next year. For those who missed the chance to apply, the young innovator for Guangci Park project will be introduced in the first quarter of next year. Taipei citizens who would like to live in a social housing building under the Young Innovator Program must not miss the latest information announced on the Department of Urban Development’s website or the Facebook page of the Young Innovator Contribution Program.