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unchanged at 24 square feet, much has been done by progressive thinking and seeking for improvements to provide within the scheme a less austere standard of housing. Thus, for instance, toilet facilities, originally communal, have heen provided on an individual basis, while the latest designs also provide for private balconies and private water taps. The blocks, too, have grown higher and lifts have had to be provided. The constant search for economical improvements in the design of resettlement and low- cost housing blocks, the planning and execution of engineering works and site formation, and the actual construction of these buildings on a massive scale have for years been a major com- mitment on the resources of the Public Works Department. All this has not been done without cost, and rents both in the older and in the newer blocks are at a higher level than they were 10 years ago, now ranging from 15 cents to 27 cents per square foot a month. At the same time, estates have been planned to include shops, schools, playgrounds and other important amenities. There are plans which, if realized, will bring the resettlement population to about 1.6 million by 1971, when out of a projected estimated population of 4.2 million, 38.1 per cent will be living in resettlement estates. The capital cost of the resettlement programme between 1954 and March 1966 amounted to $543 million, $107.6 million being spent in 1965-6. The local taxpayer, who has financed the whole of this development, will have to pay out many more millions of dollars before the programme is finally completed, even though it is the government's policy eventually to recover both capital and recurrent costs from the rents charged.
The Housing Society, which is a voluntary organization, and the Housing Authority, a statutory body, have as their primary aim the relief of gross overcrowding in tenement houses, cubicles and the like. They have built blocks of flats of a better standard than resettlement accommodation for families of varying sizes with incomes of $400 to $900 a month and an occupancy ratio of 35 square feet per person. Each unit consists of a single room, sub-divided by the tenant to suit the needs of his family, and a small kitchen, lavatory, shower, utility space and verandah. The estates are planned as far as possible as neighbourhood units, generally with their own shopping centres, at gross densities around 2,000 people per acre. Schools, clinics, kindergartens, party rooms,
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