Shek Kip Mei Estate

History

Following the Second World War, a large number of migrants from the mainland arrived in Hong Kong. Due to the lack of housing policy, and thus non-availability of affordable housing, the migrants lived illegally in wooden shanties in a hillside ghetto in the Sham Shui Po area. Poor facilities, unsanitary conditions, and the high density of huts represented a serious safety hazard. On 24 December 1953, the ghetto caught fire. The blaze lasted for six hours and was put under control on 25 December, at around 2:30 am. It left an estimated 53,000 people without shelter.

Consequently, the Colonial government built a 29-block resettlement estate on the site of the burnt-down shanties to house the homeless victims.{{Cite web | access-date = 7 February 2007 }} Eight blocks (Blocks A to H), now renumbered as Blocks 10 through 13 and 35 through 41, were constructed with the financial aid of the United Nations. These 7-storey blocks were constructed in an 'H' configuration consisting of two residential wings, with a central core of communal cooking and sanitary facilities. Residential units, which housed entire families, were roughly 100 sqft in size. Later, towers were constructed in a single block configuration.

The massive fire gave birth formally to the public housing policy of the Government. In 1961, the subsidised rent policy was launched with the construction of 7 towers at the junction of Tai Hang Road West and Nam Cheong Street. The Shek Kip Mei Estate was subdivided into "Upper" and "Lower" estates, with the Upper estate being designated a "low-rent estate" (廉租屋邨), and the Lower estate designated a "Resettlement estate" (徙置屋邨). Occupation of these blocks commenced in 1963.

Housing units were little more than small cubicles, and the original plan was to allocate 24 sqft per adult and half that for each child under 12.{{Cite web | access-date = 7 February 2007 }} However, they were in reality often occupied by more than one family due to the extreme shortage of available housing.{{Cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410105123/http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/newspaper/view/12_07.01/117197.pdf |archive-date=2008-04-10 | access-date = 7 February 2007 }} Facilities and sanitation were primitive, and communal.

Until the establishment of the Housing Authority in 1973, Hong Kong's public housing was administered by the Resettlement Department. By that time, eleven old blocks of the estate had been pulled down, and modernisation of 18 blocks of the resettlement estate had commenced. Phased re-occupation of the re-numbered estate took place between 1978 and 1984. The distinction between "Upper" and "Lower" estates was henceforth disregarded. Mei Yu House (美如樓) and Mei Ying House (美映樓), representing the latest phase, were built on the location of Blocks 1 to 7 (the resettlement estate), and were mostly occupied on 18 July 2006.

All remaining 1950s blocks were demolished since 20 June 2007, excluding Block 41, which is reserved for further revitalisation.

Conservation

Main article: Mei Ho House

Block 41 of the estate, Mei Ho House (美荷樓), the last remaining example of the "Mark II" building in a single-block configuration, has been listed as a Grade I historic building, and will be preserved tentatively as a record of Hong Kong's public housing development. In 2008, it was part of the seven buildings of Batch I of the Hong Kong Government's Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme seeking adaptive reuse of government-owned historic buildings. On 17 February 2009, the government declared that the building would be used by the Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association as "City Hostel". The capital cost of the project was estimated at HK$192.3 million. Estimated completion time was early 2012. The hostel was finally opened in December 2013.

• It was closed due to the COVID-19 epidemic.*

COVID-19 pandemic

Mei Wui House of the estate was in locked down for mandatory testing on 17 February 2022. Block 21 was also put into lockdown from the next day to 20 February.

Blocks

As of 2021 the estate has 21 blocks, plus the preserved Block 41 presently in use as a youth hostel. The 21 blocks provide 10,800 public rental flats accommodating a design population of 26,400.

Hong Kong Public Libraries maintains the Shek Kip Mei Public Library in the Shek Kip Mei Estate Ancillary Facilities Block.

Gallery

Image:SKM Estate BLK14.jpg|Block 14 Image:SKM Estate BLK17.jpg|Block 17 Image:SKM Estate BLK18.jpg|Block 18 Image:SKM Estate BLK22.jpg|Block 22 Image:SKM Estate BLK25.jpg|Block 25 Image:SKM Estate BLK27 and 28.jpg|Blocks 27 & 28 Image:SKM Estate BLK34.jpg|Block 34 Image:SKM Estate BLK37.jpg|Block 37 Image:SKM Estate BLK38 remains.jpg|Demolished Block 38 Image:SKM Estate BLK39 and 40.jpg|Blocks 39 & 40 Image:Shek Kip Mei Estate.jpg|Block 41 Mei Ho House Image:SKM Estate BLK44.jpg|Block 44 Image:SKM Estate Mei Yue House.jpg|Rebuilt Mei Yu House Image:SKM Estate Mei Yue House 2.jpg|Rebuilt Mei Yu House Image:SKM Estate Overview.jpg|Distant vista of Shek Kip Mei Estate Image:SKM Estate Overview 2.jpg|Distant vista of Shek Kip Mei Estate Image:SKM Estate Phase 1.jpg|Phase one building

References

References

1. [http://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/aboutus/resources/publications/housingdimensions/0,,3-0-19677-19683_9,00.html Hong Kong Housing Authority – Transformation of Shek Kip Mei Estate]
2. "Shek Kip Mei Estate, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon West". Hong Kong Housing Authority.
3. (15 December 2016). "The Vertical City, Part II: Why Half of Hong Kong Lives in Public Housing".
4. [http://www.amo.gov.hk/form/historical.pdf List of Graded Historic Buildings in Hong Kong (as at 6 November 2009)] {{webarchive. link. (9 July 2011)
5. [http://www.heritage.gov.hk/en/rhbtp/buildings.htm Conserve and Revitalise Hong Kong Heritage: Batch I of Revitalisation Scheme]
6. [http://www.heritage.gov.hk/en/rhbtp/ProgressResult_Mei_Ho_House.htm Batch I of Revitalisation Scheme – Result of Selection – Mei Ho House as City Hostel]
7. link. (4 March 2014)
8. [https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1634328-20220217.htm RTHK]
9. "Shek Kip Mei block locked down for overnight testing - RTHK".
10. "Shek Kip Mei Public Library". [[Hong Kong Public Libraries]].