Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 60

127. Another subsidiary duty is the allocation of temporary sites to fire victims immediately after a squatter fire. These may be on the streets or on the fire site, if it is a steep hillside not required for any other purpose. Work of this kind occupied much of the time of the Squatter Control Section in November when, as has already been mentioned, six sizeable fires occurred and 12,000 persons were made homeless.

128. The work of squatter prevention involves the demolition of new squatter structures without any offer of resettlement. It is therefore the distasteful duty of the squatter patrols to evict families and destroy their homes. This work is quite unlike that of any of the other sections of the depart- ment but is unfortunately made necessary by the present over- crowded state of Hong Kong. If new squatting were not prevented, new squatter areas would be established which would within a short time become serious fire and health risks. As these new squatter structures can easily be built overnight, and are often constructed of old materials, their detection is not always easy. It cannot therefore be claimed that prevention is one hundred per cent effective, particularly where new huts are built in the middle of old squatter areas. The squatter patrols can however ensure that no new squatter areas are established.

129. Towards the end of the year there was evidence that the number of persons attempting to build new squatter structures was on the increase. Many of these persons had come from tenement buildings which they had left either voluntarily, or because of inability to pay the rent, or because the tenement building in which they had been living was to be demolished. When such buildings are demolished existing tenants are given cash compensation but this does not necessarily enable them to find anywhere else to live.

130. In all over 3,000 unlawful structures were demolished during the year, either directly by the squatter patrols or by the occupiers themselves after the service of a demolition notice.

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