REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG
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had to be obtained. Under the Public Health (Sanitation) Ordinance of 1935 more stringent conditions were introduced to ensure the provision of adequate latrine facilities but the minimum standard of accommodation for the assessment of overcrowding was brought down to 35 sq. ft. of habitable floor area and 350 cu. ft. of unobstructed internal air space per adult.
Whilst the new building regulations provided a means for the limitation of congestion through the over-intensive use of land, the enforcement of measures to relieve overcrowding within buildings continued to meet with little success and this matter became the subject of an inquiry by another housing commission which was appointed in 1935 to consider what steps should be taken to remedy the situation.21
It was estimated by the commission that in 1935 there was a shortage of between 25,000 and 35,000 flats. In commenting upon the badly congested living conditions in many districts it was noted in the commission's report that, to a large degree, the existence of such conditions could be accounted for by the fact that before coming to Hong Kong many Chinese were used to living in compact rural communities where sanitary arrangements were very basic and overcrowding merely a way of life.22 This acceptance of minimal standards plus a fatalistic attitude towards life thus produced no strong demand for improvement when families moved to Hong Kong.
Another relevant factor noted in the commission's report was that the housing problem was attributable in a large measure to the fact that most working-class families could not afford to rent a whole tenement floor, with the consequence that living space was sub-divided and rented out to separate households. Moreover, the law took no account of the needs of different families or sexes for separate accommodation for, as noted, the minimum standard of occupation was set at 35 sq. ft. of floor area and 350 cu. ft. of internal air space per adult person. This arbitrary measure assumed that the available living space could be evenly distributed among all the occupants of a dwelling.
The recommendations made by the commission added weight to some of the proposals put forward in 1923; namely that in order to
21 Report of the Housing Commission, 1935, Hong Kong, 1938.
22 Ibid., p. 11.