Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 8

and with the shortage of land in the Colony, this form of land utilization was quite uneconomic. On Christmas Day 1953 a fire broke out in the densely crowded Shek Kip Mei squatter area and over 50,000 people were made homeless. Although by no means the first serious fire in a squatter area this was the worst, and it precipitated Government action on a large scale. Within weeks, temporary two-storey buildings had been built on the fire site and within months the first multi-storey housing blocks. In April 1954, the Resettlement Department was created to look after the new resettlement blocks, to take over the existing cottage areas and to be generally responsible for the control and resettlement of squatters. Some of these duties had previously been the responsibility of divisions of the Urban Services Department, Public Works Department and Social Welfare Office, and officers from these departments formed the nucleus of the new department. What was originally a temporary department is now here to stay and, after fourteen years, it is the sixth largest department in terms of staff and is still growing rapidly. By the end of March 1968 it was managing 22 residential estates and 22 factory blocks designed by the Public Works Department, together with 15 cottage areas. It was the landlord of well over one million people and had cleared for development over 4 square miles of land, more than one- hundredth of the Colony's total land area.

6. In September 1964 the Legislative Council approved a White Paper entitled 'Review of Policies for Squatter Control, Resettlement and Government Low Cost Housing' as a general guide to future policy. The White Paper provided for the setting up of 'licensed areas' under the control of the Commissioner 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. As a corollary to the establishment of licensed areas, strict control of new squatting else- where would continue to be enforced. Existing tolerated structures would be contained and their removal effected by the normal process of clearance and resettlement.

7. 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 have made an advance payment of rent for resettlement accommodation;

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