are intended for people with no priority for resettlement, for example 'impostors' at clearances, the genuinely homeless, or those who have opted out of the rent advance scheme. Licensed areas are provided by the Government with such basic facilities as a public water supply, surface drains and latrines. As they are of a temporary nature, huts are very simple but must be built of fire-resistant materials. A standard scale is laid down for hut-sizes, depending on the number of occupants, and huts are usually built by contractors at prices ranging from $2.50 to $3.50 a square foot, according to the locality. Apart from the basic amenities provided by the Government, the larger areas may contain schools, welfare centres and clinics, supplied and run by charitable or religious organizations. Most areas have a number of shops operated by former squatters.
22. During the year 9,821 people were resited into licensed areas. They comprised:
872 victims of natural disasters and fires;
819 tenants and rooftop squatters from condemned buildings;
45 compassionate cases;
2,587 boat squatters;
1,066 homeless people remaining on sites after clearance operations;
3,835 squatters from demolished illegal structures;
597 persons of other categories, mainly former tenants or permittees evicted
from estates and cottage areas.
23. At the beginning of the year there were 30,036 people in the Class I and II licensed areas and by the end of the year there were 34,070 people.
CLASS III LICENSED AREAS
24. The need to free large areas of Crown land for development has displaced a number of industrial undertakings which require substantial storage space and are not therefore suitable for resettlement in the department's flatted factories. In March 1969, the Government set aside an area at Kwun Tong and in May 1970 an area at Tai Wo Ping, officially known as Class III licensed areas, to accommodate such under- takings. By the end of the year, 224,507 square feet of space had been allocated to 212 operators. The annual licence fee is $1.80 a square foot.
SQUATTER FIRES
25. The year was a bad one for squatter fires. 20 serious fires were recorded displacing 477 families, or 2,232 persons, from various squatter
8