ENG-1979 — Page 142

HOUSING AND LAND

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their own internal and external walls. Facilities provided include concrete hardstanding; house water and electricity supply; central lavatory facilities, usually with water-borne sanitation; paved and grassed common areas; security guards; and comprehensive manage- ment services. Family units are let at a modest, monthly rental of $5.38 for each square metre.

A total of 28,000 people, including 2,000 from the waiting list and 6,000 affected by typhoons and fires, moved into temporary housing during the year. This brought to 80,000 the number of people living in the 40 temporary housing areas managed by the Housing Authority.

Transit Centres x

The Housing Authority also provides short-term accommodation in transit centres for people made homeless by fires or natural disasters. Because of the increased calls on transit centres during the year, it was necessary to use temporary housing areas to accom- modate some people who would normally be allocated space in a transit centre. The total capacity of the transit centres is about 1,700 people.

Squatter Control and Clearance

Despite higher production figures for public housing, the number of squatters has reduced but little in recent years because Hong Kong's population continues to grow alarmingly - mainly from illegal immigration. The policy for dealing with the environmental and social problems created by squatter areas has had to be modified over the years to allow for changing circumstances. Today, because of the tremendous pressure on housing, the policy is to clear only those areas required for permanent development and to exercise strict control over the building of additional structures in areas planned for such development. Squatters occupying huts covered by the 1964 General Squatter Survey, together with people occupying licensed structures, temporary housing areas and private tenement buildings required for a public purpose or declared dangerous, are eligible for direct permanent housing on clearance. Squatters occupying post-1964 survey structures and houseboats are only eligible for temporary housing.

During 1979, a total of 22,900 people moved into permanent housing and a further 8,000 into temporary housing as a result of clearance operations. The 1979 programme yielded 255.6 hectares of land for development with the removal of more than 30,900 people from squatter-type structures.

The Housing Department's responsibility for controlling squatters was extended at the end of the year to include Sha Tin and Tuen Mun New Towns in the New Territories. Previously, this control had been confined to the urban areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the Tsuen Wan district of the New Territories. About 331,000 squatters live in these five districts.

With squatters being cleared only from land required for permanent development, the task of squatter control is to contain the growth of temporary structures on areas of Crown land required for development or where squatter structures are likely to create health, fire or structural hazards. During the year, 6,900 structures or extensions were demolished in a number of areas designated as intensive patrol areas.

Renewed immigration in 1979 led to general overcrowding in existing squatter structures and the presence of racketeers attempting to build and sell huts for profit. The speed with which these huts were built and occupied added to the problem of squatter control, particularly outside areas patrolled intensively.