61. A group of private decorators specializing in resettlement work has grown up, and considerable trouble has been caused by these decorators refusing to follow the department's rules. During the year an attempt was made to restrict by ballot the number of decorators allowed to operate in each new estate, but this led to complaints of monopoly and high prices, and the experiment was discontinued. The present system is to maintain a register of permitted decorators, each of whom is required to deposit $500 to cover damage and breakages. In addition an experimental Intake Team was set up, operating under an Assistant Resettlement Officer, with Resettlement Assistants to patrol each block under decoration and with labourers to deal with rubbish etc. It is hoped to extend this scheme to all new estates.
62. Apart from unauthorized decoration, the major tenancy problem in the estates is non-payment of rent. Rents are due monthly in advance and are payable at the estate rent office. At the beginning of the financial year, some 25% of domestic rents were unpaid at the end of the month due (but only 2% by the end of the next month). Some estates, however, had even greater backlogs and many shop tenants are bad payers. Much of the block officers' time during the year was spent chasing rents, a process which starts with an initial reminder on the fifteenth of the month and ends with an eviction notice at the end of the second month. Most defaulters plead poverty, and it takes time for their cases to be considered for possible assistance by the Social Welfare Department or by voluntary welfare agencies. 150,000 letters of warning were issued and the tenancies of 196 families terminated during the year for non-payment of rent.
CLEANSING
63. All the old estates are cleaned by direct labour, that is labourers supervised by gangers, chargemen and foremen. The manning scale is approximately 1 labourer to 110 rooms, and a staff of over 2,700 is employed for this purpose. In the Mark I, II and III blocks, in addition to sweeping staircases and verandahs, the labourers also have to clean the communal lavatories. The door-to-door collection of household refuse is not carried out by departmental staff and residents have to engage private contractors or do it themselves. In the Mark III and IV blocks, which have refuse chutes, the refuse rooms have to be left open all day for residents' use and get very dirty. Refuse is loaded into baskets and trolleyed to loading points where it is collected by Urban Services Department vehicles for disposal.
19
Page 25Page 26