Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1957-1958 — Page 16

officer in charge of the resettlement estate or area into which the squatter is to be moved.

37. It is at this stage that personal contact is made for the first time between the staff of the Department and the squatter, and the good screener who has been well trained will be able to appreciate the squatter's point of view and understand his needs and his problems. The main difficulty arises when the squatter wishes to add to the screening form the names of relatives or friends who in fact live else- where and are not eligible for resettlement-eligibility being restricted to the genuine residents of a squatter area at the time of screening. In cases of doubt unannounced night visits will have to be made to find out whether claims to residence are genuine. Only when the Officer in Charge of the Screening Section is fully satisfied that the particulars on the screening form are accurate is a Resettlement Department temporary identity card-popularly known as a 'white card' issued to the head of the household.

38. The screening forms are then passed to the Mobile Resettlement Unit. The officers in this Unit are mainly experienced Area Officers who have formerly been on the administrative staff of resettlement estates or areas and who are able to answer the queries and put at rest the doubts. which some squatters may have about life in a resettlement estate and its advantages as compared with life in a squatter area.

39. About a month before the clearance is due to take place the Mobile Resettlement Unit establishes a temporary office in or near the squatter area to be cleared and then issues clearance and resettlement notices giving the date by which the squatters should register, the dates on which they should move, the date by which their houses must be demolished, particulars of the type of accommodation for which the family is eligible, and the procedure to be followed. For the next four weeks the staff in the Mobile Unit's temporary office will have to be ready to answer all kinds of inquiries, to deal sympathetically with requests and to help in solving personal and family problems. One of the points on which they will have to advise will be the types of business --shops, restaurants, workshops, etc.-which are allowed in the ground floor rooms in the estates and whether an Urban Council licence is required. If the business being operated is one which cannot be allowed on the ground floor of a domestic building the squatter will probably decide to change his trade.

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