Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1971-1972 — Page 26

Government low cost housing estates. This decision is being im- plemented. Certain improvements are being introduced in the Mark VI blocks being built, while new estates being planned will be built to a design similar to low cost housing, with rooms which will be 141 feet wide and which will be of a more useful shape than the 11-foot wide rooms in Mark VI blocks.

45. For Mark I and II blocks, action continued to be taken to improve conditions. The programme to replace haphazard tenants' outside wiring by proper cables in conduits continued; and 26,052 units in 4 estates were completed during the ycar, with the monthly rent being increased by $1 to cover this improvement.

CONVERSION/REDEVELOPMENT OF SHEK KIP Mei Estate

46. These Mark I and II blocks were so constructed that they could be converted to self-contained flats. Following a successful pilot scheme at Block 25, Wong Tai Sin Estate, the Housing Board recommended in 1970 that Shek Kip Mei Estate, the oldest Mark I resettlement estate, originally built for 50,000 people and now accommodating 62,000 people, should be converted and redeveloped into self-contained accommodation with better commercial, social and other ancillary facilities. The scheme, involving the demolition of one block, the re- development of seven blocks and conversion of 21 blocks was approved by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council in September 1971 and is now a Category A item in the Public Works Programme. 47. It is envisaged that the 62,000 people will be rehoused at either the nearby Pak Tin Government Estate (which is to be managed by The Housing Authority) or converted Shek Kip Mei blocks, after a construction programme lasting for 6-7 years. A rehousing operation of such magnitude-involving the removal of 62,000 domestic tenants, 520 shop and workshop operators, displacement of 35 rooftop schools and welfare organizations and 700 illegal hawkers requires thorough pre- paratory work to ascertain the problems of those affected and to find solutions to them. The Rehousing Unit established in December 1971 began to conduct surveys of unauthorized persons, cottage industries and unauthorized trades in domestic rooms, shops and workshops, schools and welfare agencies and tenants' attitudes. The unit was assisted in this work by staff of the Housing Authority. By the end of the period under review, sufficient progress had been made to enable the assumption to be made that the tenants living in blocks to be converted in the first phase of the scheme could be invited to move into the spacious new

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