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ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN.
CHAIRMAN:--Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting is called to order.
Before moving to the Agenda, I would like to congratulate Mr. FORSGATE, who hasn't unfortunately arrived yet, on his appointment as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Environmental Pollution on Land and Water. The interest which he has always shown in this Council in this important field well qualifies him for this difficult task. I heard it referred to the other day as "pollution", a combination of population and pollution. I also understand that Mr. CHEONG-LEEN has accepted an invitation to serve on that Committee which I am sure will benefit from his years of experience here in this Council.
MINUTES.
The Minutes of the meeting held on 5th October, 1971, were confirmed.
(Messrs. H. M. G. FORSGATE and LO Tak-shing arrived at this point).
PAPERS.
The Chairman laid upon the table the following papers:
(1) Report on the work of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department for the month of October, 1971.
(2) Urban Council and Urban Services Department Statistical Report for the period 1st July, 1971 to 30th September, 1971.
(3) Report by the Commissioner for Resettlement on the progress of clearance and resettlement operations for the period 1st July, 1971 to 30th September, 1971.
QUESTIONS.
(1) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:-
If resettlement is offered to residents of dangerous buildings because of their urgent need for housing, why do they have to wait for months after they have paid their rent in advance?
THE COMMISSIONER for RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:--
The answer to this question is that tenants of dangerous buildings—and this category is restricted to protected tenants in pre-war buildings—are not in fact No. 1 resettlement priority, as this question suggests; they are lower on the list than victims of fire and natural disasters, and compassionate cases recommended by the Social Welfare Department. However, they are high up on the resettlement priority list and should be dealt with promptly.
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The actual position today is that there are about 110 families who have made their rent advance payment and are still waiting for resettlement. 65 of these 110 families have been waiting less than one month since payment, and the remaining 45 have been waiting more than one month; in fact, most of these 45 have been waiting for two or three months. In each and every case there is a good reason for the time lapse, as I will now show. 40 of them are held up because the necessary Tenancy Inquiry Bureau documents have not yet reached my department, or because the family was not listed in the Bureau's schedule and had therefore to be specially investigated. 3 of the 45 families have failed to provide the necessary family photographs to allow documentation to proceed. (Mr. B. A. BERNACCHI arrived at this point). Finally, 2 of these 45 families changed their choice of estate at the last minute and asked for rooms in an estate where no suitable rooms were available. (Mr. Hilton CHEONG-LEEN arrived at this point). Generally speaking, if the case is straightforward then the unavoidable procedure in such cases requires about one month, that is, screening the family, preparing nominal rolls, listing the eligible members and arranging advance dates for the pre-letting interview at the estate in question. We are not however satisfied with the present departmental arrangements for handling these cases, and improvements will be introduced in the near future to ensure that delays are minimized and that a close watch is kept on the progress of all cases. And in case this question leads anyone to think that we are falling behind in our handling of these cases, I should add that over 9,000 places of a total 1971-72 quota of 10,100 places have already been allocated to former tenants of dangerous buildings.
MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, on a point of clarification, could the Commissioner tell me where he finds in my question that I said this was priority No. 1 or anything like that?
COMMISSIONER for RESETTLEMENT:-Mr. Chairman, Mrs. ELLIOTT is quite correct, it is not in the question. I must withdraw that comment. It was indeed, I think, in a letter Mrs. ELLIOTT wrote to me as background but not in her question.
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