TNAG-0317-FCO40-353-Policy-of-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-problem-of-s-1971 — Page 130

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工人學生政治行動委員會

WORKER-STUDENT POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

very inexpensive accommodation, a very large number of people. At the moment, according to Resettlement Department figures, there are 1,098,100 people living in resettlement, and this is well over one quarter of the population. It is also true that the Hong Kong Govern- ment has spent great sums of money on, this form of housing, with no prospect of immediate financial returns on the investment the resettle- ment estates have a rent structure designed to pay back costs over a period of 40 years, and it is within the possibilities that the Govern- ment will not be here to collect back all the money it has expended. It is also true that the Government has sold 'land for housing at very low cost to the Housing Authority and Housing Society; had it sold the land for industrial or commercial development it could have realized at least twice the price, or even three times the price at today's prices. Credit for these facts must be given, since it is due.

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However, it is a serious mistake, but one which is frequently, and one suspects, deliberately made, to overlook the enormous shortcomings of the accommodation the Government has provided for the refugees. Living conditions in resettlement, estates are very, very bad. The mast painful problem is that of overcrowding. According to the Resettlement Department's regulations, a child under the age of 10 is entitled to only half the space of an adult. It is impossible to estimate exactly what is the average space available to each person, since every

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day there will be families that are technically not overcrowded in which

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a child reaches his tenth birthday, so that the family becomes overcrowded. But a reasonable guess, which is based on the reports of many social workers, is that the average adult has a total living space of under 23 square feet. This is well below the living space of 35 sq.ft., considered by the World Health Organization to be the minimum habitable area. Children under ten, therefore have about 114 sq. ft., although in estates such as Li Cheng Uk, Tai Hang Tung and Shek Kip Mei, children with only 6 sq.ft. are easily found.

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This excessive overcrowding has the advantage (to the Hong Kong Government) of using scarce land areas very economically, but the soolal evil's that naturally arise have far-reaching effects, which inevitably in the long run, and sometimes also oven in the short run, are, harmful to

society, as a whole.