The Resettlement Department (Chinese :徙置事務處) was a department of the Government of Hong Kong, responsible for constructing resettlement estates for homeless refugees, established in 1954. In 1973, the Resettlement Department and the Building Section of the Urban Services Department were merged to form the Housing Department, which acts as the Housing Authority's executive body. [1]
In December 1953, a major fire destroyed the slum area in Shek Kip Mei and more than 50,000 refugees from Mainland China were made homeless. After the disaster, then Governor Sir Alexander Grantham ordered Ronald Holmes to establish the Resettlement Department and appointed him as the Deputy Colonial Secretary and the first Commissioner of Resettlement. The Resettlement Department was formed from sections of the Public Works Department, the Social Welfare Department, and the Urban Services Department. [2] The development of public housing marked a radical shift from the laissez-faire philosophy of the Government. [3]
In order to resettle the homeless refugees in a short period of time, Holmes took the lead to construct a number of resettlement estates on the burnt ground in Shek Kip Mei and in its neighboring area. Some of the notable examples included Shek Kip Mei Estate and Tai Hang Tung Estate. [4] After the creation of the Resettlement Department, constructing public housing estate for resettling the poor people became one of the primary policy goals set by the government in postwar Hong Kong. In October 1955, when he succeeded the retired Harold Giles Richards as the Director of Urban Services, Ronald Holmes stepped down from the Resettlement Department and was succeeded by Arthur Walton as Commissioner of Resettlement. [5]
The Resettlement Department built a total of 25 housing estates between 1954 and 1973. [2] The ten-year public housing programme proposed by Governor Sir Murray MacLehose led to the need for a "corporatized housing authority." The establishment of the Housing Department inherited and expanded the projects and plans of the Resettlement Department. [6]
Shek Kip Mei, originally known as Shek Kap Mei, is an area in New Kowloon, to the northeast of the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong. It borders Sham Shui Po and Kowloon Tong.
Sir Hugh Selby Norman-Walker was a British colonial official. He served in India from 1938 to 1948. Joining the Colonial Office in 1949, he successively served as an Administrative Officer and an Assistant Secretary in Nyasaland, and was seconded to the Cabinet Office of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953. He returned to Nyasaland to become Development Secretary in 1954, Deputy Financial Secretary in 1960 and Secretary to the Treasury in 1961. He remained in the government until 1965 when Nyasaland gained independence as Malawi in 1964. In 1965, Sir Hugh was posted to the Bechuanaland Protectorate as Her Majesty's Commissioner. Knighted in 1966, in September of the same year he witnessed the independence of the Protectorate as Botswana. In the next year, Norman-Walker was posted to the Seychelles as the Governor and Commander-in-Chief but his short tenure came to an end when he was assigned to succeed Sir Michael Gass, who was in turn appointed High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, as Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong in 1969. He was once rumoured to be the designated candidate to succeed Sir David Trench as the Governor of Hong Kong, but the rumour soon died out when the post was taken up by Sir Murray MacLehose, a career diplomat, in 1971.
Public housing in Hong Kong is a set of mass housing programmes through which the Government of Hong Kong provides affordable housing for lower-income residents. It is a major component of housing in Hong Kong, with nearly half of the population now residing in some form of public housing. The public housing policy dates to 1954, after a fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed thousands of shanty homes and prompted the government to begin constructing homes for the poor.
Sir Denys Tudor Emil Roberts was a British colonial official and judge. Joining the colonial civil service as a Crown Counsel in Nyasaland in 1953, he became Attorney General of Gibraltar in 1960. In 1962, he was posted to Hong Kong as Solicitor-General, and was successively promoted to Attorney-General in 1966, Colonial Secretary/Chief Secretary in 1973 and Chief Justice in 1979. He was the first and only Attorney-General to become both Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong. Never having been a judge before, he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1979 and was the first and only Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong to receive such appointment.
Shek Kip Mei Estate is the first public housing estate in Hong Kong. It is located in Sham Shui Po and is under the management of the Hong Kong Housing Authority. The estate was constructed as a result of a fire in Shek Kip Mei in 1953, to settle the families of inhabitants in the squats over the hill who lost their homes in one night.
Mei Ho House, formerly part of Shek Kip Mei Estate, Hong Kong, is the last remaining example of a "Mark I" building in a single-block configuration. While the other buildings of the estate dating from the 1950s have been demolished, being replaced by new ones, Mei Ho House was chosen to be preserved and was reopened in 2013 as a youth hostel and heritage museum.
Sir Donald Collin Cumyn Luddington, was a British colonial government official and civil servant who served firstly in the Hong Kong Government and became District Commissioner, New Territories and the Secretary for Home Affairs successively, during which he had also served as an official member of the Legislative Council. He was later promoted to Oceania and was High Commissioner for the Western Pacific and Governor of the Solomon Islands during the period from 1973 to 1976. He returned to Hong Kong in 1977 to replace Sir Ronald Holmes as chairman of the Public Service Commission. He was the second person, after Sir Jack Cater, to hold the post of Commissioner of ICAC from 1978 until his retirement in 1980.
Sir David Ronald Holmes was a British colonial government official who served in Hong Kong from 1938.
Tai Hang Sai Estate is a private housing estate in Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is located between Shek Kip Mei Estate and Tai Hang Tung Estate, near MTR Shek Kip Mei station. It consists of 8 residential buildings which were built in 1965 and 1977 respectively. Although it is rental housing, it was developed by a privately owned company, unlike other public housing estates which are built and managed by either Hong Kong Housing Authority or Hong Kong Housing Society.
Tai Hang Tung Estate is a public housing estate in Kowloon Tong, Sham Shui Po District, Kowloon, Hong Kong, located near the Tai Hang Sai and Nam Shan Estates as well as Shek Kip Mei station.
Pak Tin Estate is a public housing estate in Shek Kip Mei, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong, located between Shek Kip Mei Estate and Chak On Estate.
Public housing estates in Shek Kip Mei are public housing in an area originally known as Kap Shek Mi in New Kowloon on the North Eastern Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong.
There is a moderately medium sized ethnic minority population of Nepalese people in Hong Kong, forming roughly 4% of the total ethnic minorities population. They primarily came to this territory as part of the Gurkha brigade of the British Army in 1960s. After the handover in 1997, their siblings were granted rights of abode in Hong Kong. Hence, majority of the Nepali population of Hong Kong are the children and grandchildren of Gurkha soldiers.
Edward Tyrer was a senior British colonial police officer who was Commissioner of Police, Hong Kong, from December 1966 to July 1967.
The Kung Sheung Daily News was a Chinese language newspaper published in Hong Kong under British colonial rule. It was owned indirectly by Ho Shai-lai, a former Republic of China general and son of Hong Kong tycoon Robert Ho Tung. It was a pro-Kuomintang newspaper and ran according to the Minguo calendar.
Composite buildings are a common feature of the architectural style of Hong Kong buildings that were constructed in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Nam Cheong Street is a street in Shek Kip Mei and Sham Shui Po, Sham Shui Po District, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It begins in the north at Lung Ping Road and Yan Ping Road in Shek Kip Mei and terminates in the south at Tung Chau Street and Boundary Street in Sham Shui Po.
Public housing estates in Hong Kong are the most common kind of public housing in Hong Kong. Typically, estate units are leased to low-income people. There are three organizations that provide housing units. They are Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA), Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS), and Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation Limited.
H Blocks is a 1970s block design in Hong Kong. Most of the blocks are constructed as public housing.
Resettlement Areas, or Resettlement Estates are an early form of public housing in Hong Kong. They were built between 1954 and 1975. The designs used are Mark I to Mark VII. Most are found in the new towns of Hong Kong. It was managed by the Resettlement Department. In 1973, it was organized into Hong Kong Housing Authority. Then, resettlement areas began to be referred as 'estates'. It was classified as 'Category B Public Housing Estates'. Newer housing projects are called 'Category A Public Housing Estates'. Today, only Mei Ho House remains standing as a Mark I block.
 | This article about the three branches of government in Hong Kong is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |