Chapter 10
Housing, Resettlement and Town Planning
Housing
The Housing Authority. The population of Hong Kong immediately prior to the outbreak of hostilities. in 1941 was estimated to be about 1,600,000 persons. This figure was reduced to less than 600,000 during the Japanese occupation but by 1946 the numbers had again risen to 1,600,000. Between 1949 and the end of 1954, the population rose from an estimated 1,850,000 to the present figure of about 2 millions, the greater part of the increase being caused by the flow of refugees into the Colony from China. The accommodation available in the Colony was naturally not equal to such a rapid increase in population. The poorer class tene- ments were first overcrowded to saturation point and then the immigrants began to form insanitary and highly inflammable squatter settlements on the fringes of the city. Although the squatter problem is being met by steps which are described later in this chapter, the general housing problem has yet to be solved, and there can be no easy or speedy solution.
The legal minimum living space in the Colony is 35 square feet for each adult and if this legal provision were to be enforced in existing tenements it is estimated that about 350,000 people would have to be rehoused. Many of these tenements are obsolete and insanitary and should be rebuilt but the population of
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