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QUEEN TO SEE ONE OI MAN ESTATE FLAT
Problem of Housing Being Energetically Tackled
The Queen will visit a family in their Of Man Estate flat when
she tours the Hong Kong Housing Authority's newest estate in the heart
of Kowloon on the morning of May 5.
The flat is a typical home in the Authority's more recent estates,
and looking at it will give the Queen a fair idea of how thousands of Hong
Kong families live whose total monthly incomes do not exceed $2,200.
Before calling on the family, the Queen will: spend some time
touring the estate. She will see some of Oi Man's facilities such as
kindergartens, schools, a shopping precinct, market stalls, and playgrounds.
The estate covers a 21-acre site. When fully occupied, it will
provide homes for 46,000 people, in 6,236 flats. It is one of the Authority's
53 estates, and the second largest after. Wah Fu..
Since 1953, when it built the first rudimentary low-rent resettle-
ment blocks to accommodate thousands of homeless squatters, the Hong Kong
Government has become the non-profit-making landlord to nearly 1.8 million
people, or 44 per cent of the population. But, despite this vast achieve-
ment, the problem of housing remains.
To tackle it, the Government, in 1972, announced an ambitious
housing programme, and in 1973; appointed a Housing Authority.to direct
the planning, building, and management of all housing estates in Hong Kong.
The Housing Department became the Authority's executive arm.
The avowed target