The Resettlement Department () was a department of the

Government of Hong Kong The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the executive authorities of Hong Kong SAR. It was formed on 1 July 1997 in accordance with the Sino-Br ...

, 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 Urban Services Department () was a government department in Hong Kong. It carried out the policies and managed the facilities of the former Urban Council. After being abolished with the Urban Council in 1999, its functions were inherited by the ...

were merged to form the

Housing Department Housing Department (房屋署) is a department of Hong Kong Government and is the executive arm of the Hong Kong Housing Authority , managing public housing estates which is a statutory organisation tasked to develop and implement a public ...

, which acts as the

Housing Authority A housing authority or ministry of housing is generally a governmental body that governs aspects of housing or (called in general " shelter" or "living spaces"), often providing low rent or free apartments to qualified residents. The existence o ...

's executive body.

History

In December 1953, a major fire destroyed the slum area in

Shek Kip Mei Shek Kip 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. History At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Shek Kip Mei was 72. A major fire on 25 ...

and more than 50,000 refugees from

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

were made homeless. After the disaster, then Governor Sir Alexander Grantham ordered

Ronald Holmes Sir David Ronald Holmes (, 26 December 1913 – 14 June 1981) was a British colonial government official who served in Hong Kong from 1938. In the Second World War, he was assigned to the British Army Aid Group where he actively took part ...

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 This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

, the

Social Welfare Department The Social Welfare Department () is a department of the Hong Kong Government responsible for providing welfare services to the community. Responsibilities The department provides services to families and children, the elderly, recovering crimin ...

, and the

. The development of public housing marked a radical shift from the

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

philosophy of the Government. 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 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 s ...

and Tai Hang Tung Estate.〈何禮文爵士在希病世〉，《工商日報》第八頁，1981年6月16日。 After the creation of the Resettlement Department, constructing

public housing estate Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

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. The Resettlement Department built a total of 25 housing estates between 1954 and 1973. 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.

References

Hong Kong government departments and agencies {{HK-gov-stub