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life for the majority. No housing can be considered satisfactory until every family has its own self contained quarters.
42. To ensure the provision of a separate home for each family it is necessary to know how many families there are. With no figures available one can only estimate or, more correctly in this case, make an intelligent guess. In the 1931 Census Report the population for Hong Kong and Kowloon is given as 654,715. Of these 304,664 are single, (both sexes) 189,502 are married men, 131,369 married women and the remaining 29,180 are almost all widowed. Taking the normal family as consisting of father, mother and children, with 131,369 married women, it might be taken that that would represent the maximum possible number of families. Many of the married men and some of the women have their wives or husbands and families living in the country. It is natural to presume that this would apply mainly to married men, of whom there is a surplus of 58,133 over married women. If it be assumed that 20% of the married women are living alone (a rather generous percentage) then the remaining 80% or 105,095 may be assumed to be living with their families. In other words, it seems reasonable to assume that there are round about 100,000 families requiring accommodation. The latest building returns show that there are, at present, about 75,000 tenement floors in Victoria and Kowloon. On the basis of one family per floor there is thus a shortage of about 25,000 floors or, approximately, 8,000 three storied tenements. Since the Census was taken in 1931 it is estimated that the population in Victoria and Kowloon has increased to about 750,000, an increase of 15%. Presumably, the number of families has increased in the same proportion. At the present time therefore a reasonable estimate of the number of families is say between 100,000 and 110,000 and the shortage of accommodation between 25,000 and 35,000 flats. If the widowed and single be taken as divided equally amongst the families, the average size of families would be six, the figures which was presumed in Paragraph 18.
43. If the shortage of flats is to be made up, it is highly desirable that these new dwellings should conform more nearly than do the present tenements, with the needs and circumstances of prospective tenants. They should provide for family life, for an average family of about six and the rent must, on average, not exceed $5 per month per family. Where poverty is the main factor to be dealt with, minimum permissible standards are apt to become maximum possible provision. Present and possible standards therefore need careful consideration.
44. The question of overcrowding is dependant to a great extent on unit of occupation adopted or implied. The Hong Kong Ordinances do not cater for the family as a unit; nor do they give any consideration to the question of the sex separation. The overcrowding standard is based on so many square feet of floor space and so many cubic feet of air space per person. Given sufficient floor and air space any number of people, regardless of sex, may occupy. one room. Applied to the normal. tenement each floor of which is capable of accommodating 10 or 12 persons, and in many cases more, then, provided those numbers are not exceeded, there is no overcrowding. If the available accommodation be measured on this basis, then the 75,000 floors can accommodate 750,000 to 900,000 people and there is no housing shortage. The fallacy is obvious. It would be quite impossible to dis- tribute the population evenly among the available houses. Family ties would frus- trate any attempt to do so.
45. In England family usage is recognized, as the overcrowding standards, whilst laying down minimum requirements per person, also lay down the number per room for sleeping purposes according to the size of the room, with a maximum of two pc. one per room, however big. In addition, the standards fix the number of people who can use a house for sleeping purposes, according to the number of habitable rooms in the house. Whilst the wording of the law refers only to persons, its provisions are based on the use of the dwelling for normal family purposes. The Hong Kong Ordinances completely ignore family life amongst a people whose regards for family ties is probably stricter than that of any other nation in the world. By English standards the normal tenement floor would only permit of four adult persons living in it; i.e., less than one average family. By Hong Kong standards two normal families can occupy one floor without overcrowding. Poverty frequently compels more than two families to share a floor.