RENT ADVANCE SCHEME
18. The rent advance scheme offers immediate priority for resettle- ment to tenants of domestic rooms in pre-war buildings demolished as being dangerous. Those opting to join the scheme are required to pay $400.00 for an adult and $200.00 for a child under ten years of age as advance rent before they move into resettlement estate rooms. This is returned to them by means of reduced rent for their estate rooms over a period of 125 months. Since the scheme started in May 1965, the department has collected over $13 million in advance payments, of which nearly $1 million was collected in the year under review. How- ever, about $0.4 million of this came from tenants of dangerous buildings scheduled for demolition in the first month of the next financial year.
19. 2,723 people evicted from dangerous buildings were registered by the department during the year, compared with 5,214 in 1969-70. Of these 443 persons joined the scheme in addition to 1,101 persons from last year's register who also opted for the scheme during the year, making a total of 1,544 persons (compared with 2,288 during the previous year); and 60 people were offered sites in Class II licensed areas (although they are still eligible to elect for the scheme within a year of the closure of the building in which they had been living, few are likely to join once they have been resited); while 2,220 persons (from this year's register) made their own arrangements but reserved their right to join within a year.
20. Since the scheme began, the department has registered a total of 49,547 people from dangerous buildings of whom 22,517 have opted to join and been resettled, 3,980 have been resited and 20,830 have made their own arrangements. The remaining 2,220 are those who had not decided to join the scheme immediately but had retained an option to do so until the end of the year.
LICENSED AREAS
21. The Squatter Control Sub-Division is also responsible for admis- sions to licensed areas and for the administration of these areas. By the end of the year, 25 Class I and II licensed areas had been set aside, with a total capacity of 60,150 people. Class I licensed areas are intended for people with a high priority for resettlement for whom estate rooms are not available at the time. The licence fee is $4 a month for a domestic site. Class II areas, where the monthly fee is $3,
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