88. Another side of the Area Officer's work will be the settling of disputes, in particular disputes between two small families who may have to share the same room. The Area Officer is in fact part welfare officer, part teacher, part health inspector and part rent collector. In carrying out these diverse duties he will be guided by the Settlement Supervisor in charge of the whole estate who is in turn responsible to the Resettlement Officer in charge of all the multi-storey estates.
89. Ground floor rooms are in
in a somewhat different category from the rooms on upper floors which have already been described. Although they are of the same size, in many cases the centre partitions have been removed in order that they may be used as shops or workshops by persons formerly operat- ing such businesses in squatter areas.
90. The workshops must of course be of a type which will not cause a health nuisance or a nuisance to neighbours in domestic rooms. Special rules applicable to workshops have therefore been drafted, with the assistance of the Labour Department, and it is the responsibility of the Area Officers to see that these rules are observed.
91. Further uses for ground floor rooms were being con- sidered towards the end of the year when it appeared likely that the Urban Council would modify its normal licensing require- ments in order to permit restaurants and cafés to be operated in the estates.
92. Particulars of the numbers of persons and the numbers of rooms in the estates will be found at Appendix I. It will be noted that 68,657 persons were on 31st March, 1956 living in 12,707 rooms in the six and seven-storey buildings while the 6,079 rooms of the emergency two-storey buildings at Shek Kip Mei accommodated some 36,747 persons. The total population of 105,404 comprised 27,446 separate families and 2,683 single persons, the average family size being 3.74 (excluding single persons).
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