Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1956-1957 — Page 32

room. It is therefore now normal practice to have rooms of these different sizes in all new blocks.

59. In the first multi-storey buildings at Shek Kip Mei the ground floors had all been used for domestic accommodation only, because of the large number of fire victims requiring resettlement at that time. In 1955 the experiment was tried of allocating whole ground floor bays of 240 sq. ft. to squatter shopkeepers in order to enable them to carry on their former businesses. A year later when a number of small workshops in squatter areas had to be cleared a further use was found for these rooms; and in the year under review the Urban Council agreed to modify its licensing requirements so that former squatters might operate restaurants, cafes, fresh meat and fish shops and roast meat shops in ground floor rooms. Other ground floor rooms are used as offices or for welfare work and at Li Cheng Uk and Tai Hang Tung ground floor bays have been converted into Government clinics which will be opened as soon as medical staff are available.

60. It will be clear that these multi-storey buildings are being used for a great variety of purposes. Moreover each of the upper floors can easily be converted at little cost into self- contained flats either of 240 sq. ft. (one bay), 360 sq. ft. (1 bays) or 480 sq. ft. (two bays) each of which will have its own kitchen, w.c., shower and private balcony. Conversions of this kind have in fact already been carried out on the top floors of blocks in each of the estates, in order to provide quarters for the estate staff, and self-contained flats of 240 sq. ft. and 360 sq. ft. are to be provided in one of the blocks of the new Lo Fu Ngam Estate now under construction. Drawings showing how these conversions can be made may be found at Appendix II at the end of this report. There is in fact no doubt whatever that these buildings are a permanent asset to the Colony, the expendi- ture on which the Hong Kong taxpayer will have no cause to regret.

B.

Administration.

61. The multi-storey estates are administered by a staff of Area Officers under an officer in charge who is normally an officer of a higher rank known as a Settlement Supervisor. He in turn is responsible to the Resettlement Officer in charge of

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