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slums are going to become slummier, more homes are going to be overcrowded--with all that this means in social problems and ill health. The matter is as urgent now as it was when resettlement was first conceived in the early 1950s, though one would hope to have learned some lessons from the deficiencies of the slums erected then.
It is because of this critical need that I am proposing this motion. I believe that we ought to have a complete rethink, and that it is time to set up another Working Party to examine the situation in detail. I am proposing now that we discuss in the Standing Committee of the Whole Council, whether the time has not come to ask the Government to set up such a Working Party as we had in 1963, of which our present Senior Elected and Appointed Colleagues were Members.
I should not like to anticipate what this Working Party would decide, but perhaps I might throw out a few ideas today to show that I am thinking of something far beyond any suggestions made by the Housing Board, which, while stressing the need, does not seem to have realized how critical that need had become. I would like to suggest that we might consider other types of housing than those known to us at present on this Council.
The high rents are now affecting people in the middle income bracket, and others who do not qualify for low-cost housing or even Housing Authority housing. The Housing Board has shown that many living in the private sector had bought their houses or were purchasing them on loans. There may well be a case for introducing a new type of small flat to be sold out-right or in instalments over a period of ten years or so, to this type of person. This suggestion would not preclude the necessity to continue building low-cost housing for those unable to purchase.
(Mr. Raymond Y. K. KAN left at this point).
This suggestion is for the middle income group, but at the other end of the scale there are those living in hopeless conditions in huts, as we have been hearing this afternoon who will not be resettled in resettlement of low-cost housing within the foreseeable future, for the simple reason that it would be a physical impossibility to erect so many permanent-type houses within a short period of time. It would also include young couples who can no longer remain in their parents' resettlement rooms after marriage. It would be a great pity if, after taking their parents from the danger and hardship of living in huts, we were now to send the children back into the same squalor and hardship, simply because we do not have enough proper housing to offer them. And indeed we are already doing this: the second generation of resettlement tenants is already moving back into huts—a sorry reflection on our much boosted "housing for the poor" schemes. Large numbers of
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houses are needed NOW. Huts are not good enough in a climate like this, where the victims of disasters are nearly always the poorest, the hut-dwellers. In these modern days there are other kinds of temporary housing such as prefabricated houses. This kind of house can be manufactured on a large scale in a short time, (I saw something about this on T.V. yesterday after I had written my speech) and if the ground were properly prepared, drainage installed, better water and electric supplies provided, the hut dwellers would at least find life more tolerable than at present. These licensed areas are just not good enough for our workers to live in indefinitely, and no one should be forced of necessity to live in such primitive conditions in the midst of an affluent society. I offer this as a quicker and better solution to a very pressing need.
There are other matters in the White Paper that need reconsideration, and which in fact have already been amended in some cases: these include the hated Rent-in-Advance Scheme, and certain priorities.
The need to review the management of estates has already been discussed in Committee, and plans are being made to train housing managers to manage estates in a way similar to that of the Housing Authority. We need to study more carefully what can be done about hawker markets and bazaars in the older as well as the newer estates. We need to rethink the problems of roof-top schools and even ground floor schools and secondary schools. There is much to be done in investigating complaints about drainage, flushing, lighting, water supplies and other facilities in estates. At present changes are only being made piecemeal, and real planning is required. In this we should make more use of the experience of management staff, who should be brought into our consultations.
I trust that my colleagues will support the motion, and agree that we should at the earliest possible moment examine whether it is not time to ask Government to set up a Working Party to give close consideration to this very critical matter of housing, upon which the stability of any community so much depends.
Sir, I propose the motion standing in my name.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Mr. Chairman, it gives me great pleasure to second Mrs. ELLIOTT'S Motion, especially since I have been connected with resettlement since 1952 and on the Resettlement Policy Select Committee from its formation. I was also a member of the Working Party whose recommendations gave rise to the White Paper of 1964. If I remember rightly, all of our recommendations were accepted but the Government, it is always the Government without any clear indication who was responsible for it, added one piece of ridiculousness, to our recommendation that persons from demolished buildings should be offered resettlement. In other words the Government added the rent-
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