Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 14

danger from blasting operations which are still proceeding in order to form the site for the fourth block.

21. The estate at Lo Fu Ngam will consist of eight single- wing blocks instead of the more usual double-wing 'H' blocks in order to reduce the amount of site formation. It will be a small estate for about 7,000 persons only and is intended for the resettlement of persons now living on a 29-acre site at Wong Tai Sin, north of Kai Tak, which will be developed as a large multi-storey resettlement estate in the near future. One of the blocks at Lo Fu Ngam will contain 70 self-contained flats on five of the seven floors instead of the normal resettlement rooms and these are intended for families at Wong Tai Sin now occupy- ing accommodation of a similar standard. By the end of the year building work had started on three blocks, the first two of which are expected to be completed by the middle of June 1957.

22. Development of 12 of the 14 cottage areas had almost been completed by March 1956 with the result that during the year 1956/57 it was not possible to form more than another 665 sites on which a total of 496 cottages were built, 307 by the National Catholic Welfare Conference of America and the remainder by the settlers themselves.

23. Because of the site formation difficulties at Hunghom and Lo Fu Ngam and the shortage of sites in the cottage areas the amount of new accommodation which became available for the resettlement of squatters was appreciably less than in the previous year. The total number of squatters cleared and resettled was 35,627, over 33,000 of whom went into the multi- storey estates. The population of the resettlement areas and estates increased from 175,797 to 213,501, an increase of 37,704. Full particulars of the populations of the fourteen cottage areas and the four multi-storey estates may be found at Appendix I at the end of this report.

24. The Resettlement Department, unlike normal housing authorities or housing societies, cannot select its tenants for its housing estates. Resettlement must be offered to all the genuine residents of a squatter area scheduled for clearance and these areas are often a refuge for quite a large number of the Colony's worst criminals and for members of Triad Societies.

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