Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 22

licensed areas are intended for people with a high priority for resettle- ment for whom estate rooms are not available at the time. Examples of this are squatters cleared from Hong Kong Island who would prefer to wait for the completion of new blocks on the Island rather than accept resettlement in Kowloon; former tenants of dangerous buildings who have paid their rent advance and are waiting rooms in the estate of their choice; and certain victims of natural disasters. The licence fee is $4 a month for a domestic site. Class II areas, where the monthly fee is $3, are intended for people with no priority for resettlement, such as 'impostors' at clearances, the genuinely homeless, those who have opted out of the rent advance scheme, etc. Both resite and licensed areas con- tain basic facilities provided by Government, such as a public water supply, surface drains, latrines and so on. As they are of a temporary nature, huts are very simple but are required to be built of fire-resistant materials. A standard scale is laid down for hut-sizes, depending on the number of occupants, and huts are usually built by contractors at prices ranging from $2.50 to $3.50 per sq. ft., according to the locality.

38. Apart from the basic amenities provided by Government, the larger areas may contain schools, welfare centres and mobile or static clinics, supplied and run by charitable or religious organizations. The larger areas have a number of shops operated by former squatters, and possibly a hawker bazaar. Hawker control, as everywhere in the Colony, is a problem, as is the control of shops whose business is thriving and the owners of which seek to expand beyond the sites allocated to them.

39. During the year, the sub-division resited 28,076 people, 21,033 to the old resite areas and 7,043 to licensed areas. This represents an increase of 35% on the previous year, mainly accounted for by the con- siderable number of boat squatters ineligible for resettlement arising from clearances at Staunton Creek and Yau Ma Tei typhoon shelter. Those resited comprised:

3,260 victims of natural disasters and fires;

246 rooftop squatters from demolished tenements;

2,264 tenants and rooftop squatters from condemned buildings;

262 squatters cleared to form firelanes in squatter areas;

603 compassionate cases;

620 homeless people remaining on site after clearance operations;

7,886 boat squatters;

6,796 squatters from land required for permanent development;

6,139 persons of other categories, mainly new illegal squatters from

demolished unlawful huts.

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