Resettlement Areas, or Resettlement Estates ( zh, 徙置區) are an early form of

public housing in Hong Kong 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 populati ...

. 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 The Government of Hong Kong, Hong Kong government started developing new towns in 1950s in Hong Kong, the 1950s to accommodate Demographics of Hong Kong, Hong Kong's booming population. During the first phase of development, the newly developed ...

(

Kwun Tong Kwun Tong is an area in the Kwun Tong District of Hong Kong, situated at the eastern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, and its boundary stretches from Lion Rock in the north to Lei Yue Mun in the south, and from the winding paths of Kowloon P ...

, Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, and Yuen Long). It was managed by the

Resettlement Department The Resettlement Department () 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 ...

. In 1973, it was organized into

Hong Kong Housing Authority The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is the main provider of public housing in Hong Kong. It was established in April 1973 under the Housing Ordinance and is an government agency, agency of the Government of Hong Kong. In the same year, the R ...

. 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 Mei Ho House (), formerly part of Shek Kip Mei Estate, Hong Kong, is the last remaining example of a "Mark Blocks, Mark I" building in a single-block configuration. While the other buildings of the estate dating from the 1950s have been demolis ...

remains standing as a Mark I block.

History

It began when a fire destroyed Shek Kip Mei in 1953. The government built two-story bungalows to accommodate the fire victims. It would later become

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 se ...

. The blocks would later evolve into Mark blocks and would be known as ''Multi-Story Housing''. The name for these estates at the time would be called "old or new". The areas would later redevelop and rebuilt multiple times in the later years. An example of this is

Kwai Chung Estate Kwai Chung Estate () is a public housing estate in Kwai Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is the largest public housing estate in Kwai Tsing District and consists of sixteen residential buildings completed between 1997 and 2008. History The ...

Early estates

The

has 25 such estates located all over Hong Kong. The estates contained seven types of blocks, ranging from Mark I to Mark VII, in which it began to be considered to be a slab block. Six of them were managed by the former agency, and the seventh one would later be managed by the

. Mark I and Mark II blocks are only seven stories tall, which were short by today's standards. The first two blocks are also H-shaped. Some blocks are named with English wording. Usually, the naming scheme has only 25 letters in the alphabet, since I is omitted due to it having confusion with the number 1. For example, the scheme goes from the first to the next, and when all the letters are used, it restarts all over again, like AA and BB.

is the only Mark I or Mark II block standing.

Mark Blocks

Mark Blocks are an early type of public housing that preceded the designs of modern public housing blocks. There are seven types of Mark blocks. It improved by each design, from Mark I as H-shaped to Mark VII as a slab block. Early blocks have small units. The height may vary by type. The conditions are poor. Early blocks have no bathroom and kitchen, making it unhabitable by modern standards. Later designs incorporated a kitchen and a bathroom.

Today

Three of the types of resettlement blocks (from Mark I to Mark VI) have yet to be demolished. The types are: *

(Block 41 of

): One of the first ever blocks. It has been preserved. It is now a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

. *Blocks 10 & 11 of

Shek Lei Estate Shek Lei Estate (), also known by Shek Lei (, both are currently used) is a Public housing in Hong Kong, public housing estate in Hong Kong, situated in the Shek Lei Pui () area in northeast Kwai Chung, New Territories, near Shek Yam Estate, On ...

: Currently used as

interim housing Interim housing () is temporary housing in Hong Kong for those not eligible for a flat in a public housing estate, but affected by disaster, fire, and redevelopment. It replaced Temporary Housing Area with buildings that are more resilient and sp ...

. Both blocks will be demolished in December 2022. It would be completed by 2028 and 2,800 new units would be built. The school will be rebuilt by mid-2022.

History

Early estates

Mark Blocks

Today

See also

References

Further reading