Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 52

obstruction of the public; and 99 for miscellaneous other reasons. Although the conditions provide for cancellation as soon as the monthly rent is in arrears, in fact few tenancies are terminated for this reason, and most of those are the result of the tenants having moved out to an undisclosed destination with no intention of returning.

110. Most of the overcrowding which occurs in rooms which have been occupied for a number of years arises from natural increase and from children reaching the age of ten and qualifying as 'adults'. Other cases may arise from increases which are avoidable but, on grounds of simple humanity and commonsense, cannot easily be prevented. In 1964 the competent authorities decided that registered households could add specific members of their family such as dependent children, parents, and newly married wives or husbands, whether or not this made their room density unacceptably high on other grounds and might then entitle them to a larger room. In 1966, concerned by the growing com- mitment to relieve overcrowding, the Housing Board recommended a review of this policy, and in December of that year, several changes were introduced. For example, a woman who is already a member of an authorized household is normally no longer permitted to bring in her newly married husband-he is expected to provide for her elsewhere; and the Social Welfare Department now assists in examining more closely the degree of dependence of elderly relatives whom tenants wish to add to their households.

111. Nevertheless, the problem of overcrowding never ceases to tax the attention and consciences of all concerned. As already mentioned, rooms have been allocated since the beginning of the programme at a density of approximately 24 square feet for each adult in the family, two children under the age of ten counting as one adult. The pressure to increase the size of the authorized household by adding close relatives (as distinct from new-born children) arises from traditional family loy- alties and the manner in which so many Chinese families have in recent years been broken up only to be reunited around a nucleus in Hong Kong. When their rooms become too crowded (at present, when room- density reaches 16 square feet per adult), families are eligible to move to larger rooms in other estates, or in the same estate if any suitable rooms are available. The department ear-marked 17,000 places for this programme during each of the three years ending 1967-68. The relief programme cannot at present be greatly increased since it is only fifth

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