Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1971-1972 — Page 13

LICENSED AREAS

21. 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, 3 Class I and 19 Class II Licensed Areas had been set aside, with a total capacity of 52,500 people. Class I Licensed Areas are intended for people with a high priority for resettlement for whom estate rooms are not available at the time. The licence fee is $4.00 a month for a domestic site. Class II Licensed Areas, where the monthly fee is $3.00, are intended for people with no priority for resettlement, for example, 'imposters' at clearances, the genuinely homeless, or those who formerly opted out of the rent advance scheme. Licensed areas are provided with such basic facilities as a public water supply, surface drains and latrines. As they are of temporary nature, huts are very simple but must be built of fire-resistent 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 $3.50 to $4.00 per square foot, according to the locality. Apart from the basic amenities provided by the Government, the larger areas may contain schools, welfare centres and clinics, supplied and run by charitable or religious organizations. Most areas have a number of shops operated by former squatters.

22. During the year, 11,056 people were resited into licensed areas. They comprised:

259 victims of natural disasters and fires;

1,940 tenants and rooftop squatters from condemned buildings;

142 compassionate cases;

2,841 boat squatters;

5,498 squatters from unsurveyed structures

and clearance operations; and

376 persons of other categories, mainly former tenants or permittees evicted

from estates and cottage arcas.

23. At the beginning of the year, there were 35,155 people in the Class I and Class II Licensed Areas and by the end of the year there were 36,151 people.

CLASS III LICENSED AREA

24. The need to free large areas of Crown land for development has displaced a number of industrial undertakings which require substantial storage space and are not therefore suitable for resettlement in flatted factories. In March 1969, the Government set aside an area at Kwun

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