Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1965-1966 — Page 10

for Resettlement in which, on payment of licence fees, the genuinely homeless would be able to erect huts, and where certain minimum services would be provided. Initially at least, and unless a workable scheme could later be devised to enable them to become eligible for resettlement by making an advance payment of rent, people made homeless as a result of exclusion orders, under the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, would be among those eligible for entry into licensed areas. As a corollary to the establishment of licensed areas strict control of new squatting elsewhere would continue to be enforced. Existing tolerated structures would be contained and their removal effected by the normal process of clearance and resettlement. These provisions were an improvement on the previous policy in that they recognize and provide for the pressures which impel many poorer resi- dents to turn to squatting.

8. The White Paper then set out six priorities to be followed as far as possible in determining eligibility for resettlement. These are:

(i) former domestic tenants of buildings, demolished as dangerous and subject to the Demolished Buildings (Redevelopment of Sites) Ordinance, who pay a proportion of the rent for their accommodation in advance;

(ii) special compassionate cases (the number to be determined annually by the Urban Council) and certain victims of natural disasters;

(iii) the present occupants of cottage resettlement or resite areas

needed for transit centres or permanent development;

(iv) people presently occupying tolerated structures on Crown land

required for development;

(v) the tenants of overcrowded resettlement rooms;

(vi) pavement dwellers occupying tolerated structures.

9. As it is not always possible to resettle eligible persons direct, the White Paper provided for the establishment of Transit Centres' where persons with high priority for resettlement would be permitted to build their huts against the payment of a licence fee while they are waiting for resettlement accommodation to become available. As with licensed areas, the Resettlement Department would administer transit centres and provide basic facilities.

10. Lastly, the White Paper proposes a stepped-up building pro- gramme of 900,000 resettlement units (a unit being defined as 24 square

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