Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 20

Resettlement Assistant is required to know his patrol area intimately, no easy task when an area may contain from 1,500 to 2,000 structures and between 6,000 and 15,000 people, and covers anything up to 3,000 acres of hilly ground.

31. The function of the patrolling Resettlement Assistant is basically to see that his area remains 'frozen', that is, that no unauthorized new building takes place. Structures which are presumed to have been erected before August 1954 or which have since been expressly 'tolerated' follow- ing subsequent surveys, the last in 1964, are specially marked and records are kept of them. Tolerated structures, as the name implies, are allowed to remain undisturbed until they have to be demolished to make way for permanent development, when the occupants are resettled in the estates. When a Resettlement Assistant finds an entirely new building or an unauthorized extension to a tolerated structure, he tries to persuade the owner to demolish it himself. If the owner fails to do this (as happens more often than not), the building is demolished by the department and the confiscated building materials may subsequently be used to help squatters and victims of natural disasters in building huts in resite areas.

32. The remaining list of duties performed by the Squatter Control sub-division is a varied one. There is a great deal of case-work and investigation, and Resettlement Assistants are often asked to settle dis- putes and complaints among squatters. They are required to stop inter- lopers from taking up residence in huts which have been screened for resettlement, and they play a part in the procedure for clearing an area during a resettlement operation. They assist in the registration of victims of natural disasters, arrange temporary shelter in transit camps, of which the department maintains five in Hong Kong and Kowloon, and sub- sequent resiting, if necessary. They also report cases of destroyed or seriously damaged huts after natural disasters so that rebuilding and other grants can be paid to the victims from the Community Relief Trust Fund.

33. During the year 17,948 new structures or extensions to old ones were demolished by squatter control staff, an increase of 147 on the previous year. Of these, 272 were on the roofs of permanent buildings. Three hundred and thirty-three tons of materials, mostly loose wood and tin sheeting, were confiscated. By the end of the year under review, there were estimated to be 418,000 people still living in tolerated squatter huts and about 57,000 in resite and licensed areas.

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