TNAG-0669-FCO40-818-Policy-on-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 16

H.K. how Jamal.

Mhz Part 2

The Discretionary Powers of the Hong Kong Housing Authority

F

I INTRODUCTION

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PA

PA

A J Bradbrook*

THE origin of the Hong Kong Housing Authority can be traced to the determination of the government in the early 1950s to tackle the problem of dense overcrowding in tenement blocks. throughout the colony.1 The Housing Authority was established by legislation in April 19542 and given the duty of providing public housing for families who are unsatisfactorily housed in that they do not have the legal minimum living space of 35 square feet per adult. Unlike the Resettlement Department, which was established at approximately the same time in order to provide permanent housing for families living in squatter settlements, the Housing Authority aimed not at the poorest section of the community but households whose income ranged between $300 and $900 per month.3

The division of responsibility for public housing between the Housing Authority and the Resettlement Department existed until 1973, when the government finally heeded the advice from many sources that, as in most other countries, all public housing should be the responsibility of a single government department or agency. This change was effected in Hong Kong by the Housing Ordinance 1973, which abolished the existing Housing Authority and Resettlement Department and vested control over the planning, building and management of all public housing estates in the colony in a newly-constituted Housing Authority (hereafter referred to as 'the Authority').

In view of the size of the housing shortage and the low quality of much of the

of the existing accommodation, it is understandable that the major concern of the government and * MA (Cantab), LLM (Osgoode Hall), PhD (Melb); Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Courts of Nova Scotia and Victoria; Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne.

1

1 For discussion of the post-war living conditions in Hong Kong which led to the introduction of public housing, see Drakakis-Smith, Housing Provision in Metropolitan Hong Kong (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 1973) chapt 3; Hopkins, ‘Housing the Poor' in Hopkins (ed), Hong Kong. The Industrial Colony (Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1971) chapt 7; Hopkins, 'Public Housing Policy in Hong Kong' (1969) 16 University of Hong Kong Gazette 1; and Hong Kong 1976 (Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1976) chapt 8. Housing Ordinance, No 18 of 1954.

2

Hopkins, 'Housing the Poor,' op cit, 327.

•

Cap 283, LHK 1973 ed.