ENG-1968 — Page 193

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LAND AND HOUSING

various types largely established by voluntary agencies which generously continue to maintain these facilities.

SQUATTER CONTROL AND CLEARANCE

All squatting is by definition unlawful, but illegal structures are 'tolerated' if they were included in squatter surveys made from time to time, the latest being in 1964. When the land on which they stand is needed for development they are then cleared and their occupants resettled into the estates. 'Untolerated' structures are demolished, as are extensions to tolerated huts. People who are genuinely homeless may apply for a site in one of the Resettlement Department's licensed areas, on which they can build a hut on payment of a small licence fee and where they will remain until they are eventually cleared and resettled. Certain licensed areas are designed for those who are entitled to resettlement but who cannot take it up immediately. Entrants to licensed areas include, among others, boat squatters from typhoon anchorages; people not eligible for resettlement, left behind after squatter clearance and resettlement operations; squatters from demolished new huts; victims of natural disasters and fires; street sleepers; overspills from congested squatter huts; people affected by tenement redevelopment, and people from dangerous tenements either not eligible, or not opting for, the rent advance scheme (see below). The squatter population continues to decrease gradually, and at the end of 1968 was estimated to be about 402,000 as compared with 463,000 in April 1965. Some 19,200 people were admitted to licensed areas during the year, and at the end of December the population of these areas stood at 23,218.

The New Territories Administration is responsible for the control of squatters in the New Territories, with the exception of Tsuen Wan district where control has been transferred to the Resettle- ment Department. The more accessible parts of the New Territories are regularly patrolled and are divided into prohibited and non- prohibited areas. In prohibited areas, such as the margins of roads, development areas, and land exposed to flooding, no new domestic huts are allowed. In non-prohibited areas temporary structures may be built with permission from the District Office.