Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 42

various existing Marks of block. The number of unauthorized residents is not known precisely, since they do not advertise their presence and are not easily discovered.

83. The department has always had some difficulty in maintaining a reasonable balance between the keeping of detailed statistics about its tenants in a form which would meet some of the needs of sociological researchers and of general public interest on the one hand, while pre- serving the privacy of the tenants and enabling the staff to concentrate on essentials on the other. There is, for example, little reliable overall information about the patterns of employment and incomes enjoyed by those who live in resettlement accommodation, although a recent survey, limited to people resettled from Hong Kong to two new estates in Kowloon in 1964 and 1966, indicates that the largest groups consist of semi-skilled factory workers, followed by casual workers, skilled workers, shop employees, office workers and hawkers. The biggest income group shown in the survey was $150-$200 a month, followed by the $250 - $300 and $200 - $250 brackets. There are of course many other cate- gories, and it should not be forgotten that, when two or more members of a family are employed, the household income may be considerably larger than indicated above. Indeed, the commonest family income group in the survey just quoted is the $400 - $450 range, followed closely and equally by the $250 - $300 and $500 - $550 brackets. One of the features that distinguish the resettlement population from the residents of other state-aided housing in Hong Kong is that there is no upper limit (or indeed any limit) to the qualifying income. A majority of persons with higher incomes prefer to live in better accommodation, but there have always been some comparatively well off people who have chosen to remain in squatter areas or have otherwise become eligible for resettle- ment, and who elect to accept resettlement when it is offered.

84. It is also evident to the casual observer, although not supported by formal surveys on research, that a substantial number are achieving a rising standard of living in common with other sections of the com- munity. Domestic rooms when handed over to tenants are no more than roughly finished concrete shells, but practically no tenant ever moves straight in. He engages one of the many small contractors who earn their living by decorating and equipping rooms during the period of initial occupation of estate blocks. These decorators install various kinds of burglar-proof doors, they plaster and distemper the walls, put down various kinds of floor surfacing, install glazed windows, protective grilles to cover the verandah opening and so on. An increasing number of

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