Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1959-1960 — Page 24

standard practice. The dimensions of the rooms, with their monthly rents, are:

(a) $10 rooms of about 86 square feet for families of 3 to 34 ‘adults'; (b) $14 rooms of about 120 square feet (the previous standard size)

for families of 4 to 5 'adults";

(c) $18 rooms of about 152 square feet for families of 54 to 64

'adults';

(d) $28 rooms of about 240 square feet for families of 8 to 10 'adults'

(or two smaller families wishing to share)

(A child under 10 years of age is counted as half an adult).

53. On sites where space is limited or where difficulties in site formation preclude the use of the standard 'H' block, a modified single-wing block, known as an T block, is used. The design and the dimensions are similar to each wing of the 'H' blocks, the only differ- ence being that the latrines and bathrooms are incorporated in the block. The estate at Lo Fu Ngam is composed entirely of 'I' blocks.

54. Each of the upper floors of both the 'H' blocks and the single- wing 'I' blocks can easily be converted at little cost into self-contained flats either of 240 square feet (one bay), 360 square feet (one and a half bays) or 480 square feet (two bays) each with its own kitchen, lavatory, shower and private balcony. Conversions of this kind have in fact been made on the top floors of blocks in most estates in order to provide quarters for the estate staff. Drawings showing how these conversions can be made may be found at Appendix II at the end of this Report. One 'I' block at Lo Fu Ngam Estate was built entirely as self-contained flats, the majority of which are of the single bay type with a floor area of 240 square feet for which the rent, inclusive of rates, is $45 a month. There are in addition a certain number of larger flats of 360 square feet for which the inclusive rent is $65 a month. A second block of the same type at Wong Tai Sin Estate was completed in March 1958 and a third block at Jordan Valley Estate was completed in December 1959. These self-contained flats are reserved for families who at the time of clearance occupied accommodation of a higher standard than is provided by the standard resettlement room.

55. In the first multi-storey buildings at Shek Kip Mei the ground floors were all 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 square feet to squatter shopkeepers in order to enable them to carry on their former business. A year later a number of small workshops that

16