RENT ADVANCE SCHEME
20. The rent advance scheme offers immediate priority for resettle- ment to tenants of domestic rooms in pre-war buildings demolished as being dangerous. Those opting to join the scheme are required to pay $400.00 for an adult and $200.00 for a child under ten years of age as advance rent before they move into resettlement estate rooms. This is returned to them by means of a reduced rent for their estate rooms over a period of 125 months. Since the scheme started in May 1965, the department has collected over $12 million in advance payments, of which over $2 million was collected in the year under review.
21. 5,214 people evicted from dangerous buildings were registered by the department during the year, compared with 5,394 in 1968-69. Of these, 563 persons joined the scheme in addition to 1,725 persons from last year's register who also opted for the scheme during the year, making a total of 2,288 persons (compared with 2,646 during the previous year); and 117 people were offered sites in Class II licensed areas (although they are still eligible to elect for the scheme within a year of the closure of the building in which they had been living, few are likely to join once they have been resited); while 4,534 persons (from this year's register) made their own arrangements but reserved their right to join within a year.
22. Since the scheme began, the department has registered a total of 46,824 people from dangerous buildings of whom 20,973 have opted to join and been resettled, 3,920 have been resited and 17,397 have made their own arrangements. The remaining 4,534 are those who had not decided to join the scheme immediately but had retained an option to do so until the end of the year.
LICENSED AREAS
23. The Squatter Control Sub-Division is also responsible for admis- sions to licensed areas and for the administration of these areas. By the end of the year, 22 Class I and II licensed areas had been set aside, with a total capacity of 45,150 people. Class I licensed areas are in- tended for people with a high priority for resettlement for whom estate rooms are not available at the time. 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, as for example 'impostors' at clearances, the genuinely homeless, or those who have opted out of
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