Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1957-1958 — Page 7

CHAPTER I

THE SQUATTER PROBLEM

SQUATTERS are not a new problem in Hong Kong. In the years before the war, and indeed probably in most periods of the Colony's history, there were people who could not find or could not afford living space in conventional dwellings and who made homes for themselves in cheaply-constructed huts wherever they could find a piece of vacant land. In 1941, when the population was 1,600,000 and, by the standards of the time, the Colony was grossly overcrowded, the number of squatters was already a serious problem. But serious as the problem was thought to be then it increased beyond comparison in the post-war years.

2. In 1945 when the Colony was re-occupied, the wholesale expulsions by the Japanese had reduced the population to 600,000. Pre-war residents of the Colony returned and the unsettled conditions in China caused a wave of new immigration; at the end of 1946 the population had reached its pre-war level of 1,600,000 and by 1949 it was 2,000,000. The accommodation available in the Colony was quite inadequate to meet this rapid increase, and the comparatively isolated pre-war squatter groups became densely populated colonies. It was estimated that in 1949 there were some 300,000 squatters, that is 15% of the total population. Huts were built of wood, flattened sheets of tin, tar paper, or whatever other materials could be had cheaply; land was scarce and these huts were packed together wherever space could be found; there was no sanitation and the only available water supply was usually a stream or communal stand pipe some distance away. Many of the colonies had populations of between 30,000 and 60,000 people; they were all not only a serious and increasing fire hazard but also a grave potential threat to the health of the whole Colony. Moreover almost every site in the urban area required for permanent development, for housing, schools and other urgent needs, was occupied either partially or completely by squatters and could not be built upon until these squatters had been cleared.

3. In 1948 measures were taken to move squatters occupying bombed sites in the central districts to designated sites on the fringes of the urban areas which were at the time not required for permanent development.

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