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Appendix I: A Note


                                             on the Resettlement



                                             Programme









                                                    In most countries, governments are not involved in providing hous-
                                             ing, and certainly not on the scale of Hong Kong, where some 50% of the
                                             population live in public housing units. This is a post-war phenomenon: until
                                             1954, the Hong Kong government was not involved in building homes. The
                                             decision to adopt such an approach was the product of a set of unique cir-
                                             cumstances and misguided government policy in the immediate post-war
                                             years.

                                                    First, housing supply could not be easily increased at that time.
                                             Private developers faced formidable constraints in redeveloping the urban
                                             housing stock. Rent control imposed on pre-war housing in 1947 made it dif-
                                             ficult to evict tenants for redevelopment.


                                                    Second, the massive influx of immigrants increased the population
                                             from 600,000 in 1945 to 2.3 million in 1951 and led to an explosive growth in
                                             demand for housing. No society in peacetime had experienced such a phe-
                                             nomenon. It was a unique situation. Land available for development was
                                             invaded by about 300,000 squatters seeking alternative housing from the
                                             old private tenement apartments.

                                                    Third, the government was initially reluctant to facilitate housing
                                             development despite intensive lobbying from private business interests.
                                             There was general hostility towards private developers, many of whom
                                             took part in building squatter housing.


                                                    The old tenement blocks were packed with massive numbers of
                                             immigrants and returning residents. Most became subtenants. A small pro-
                                             portion of the new arrivals spilled over into squatter areas on the fringes of
                                             the urban areas by occupying land illegally. The government soon realised
                                             that development had become impossible because rent control had made
                                             it difficult to redevelop land within the urban areas, and land on the perime-
                                             ter was illegally occupied by squatters. The only politically feasible to secure
                                             land for development was to resettle squatters into public sector housing
                                             units and reclaim the land they had occupied.

                                                    The Shek Kip Mei Christmas fire in 1954 provided an ideal opportuni-
                                             ty for the government to introduce Resettlement Estates as a solution for
                                             dislocated households and to clear squatter areas.


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