Shek Kip Mei Estate

Shek Kip Mei Estate
Shek Kip Mei Estate after redevelopment in 2012
Chinese	石硤尾邨
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shíxiáwěi Cūn

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.

Originally constructed in 1953 to alleviate the immediate housing need, the units in this "Mark I" estate were utilitarian. Redevelopment of the estate commenced in 1972, with new towers coming on stream between 1979 and 1982. Site 1 of redevelopment was occupied in 2007.

The estate now consists of 26 blocks, containing 7,363 units/flats of between 11.1 and 55.7 square metres in floor area. The estate has an authorised capacity of 13,900.

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, insanitary conditions, 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. Eight blocks (Blocks A to H), now renumbered as Blocks 10 through 13 and 35 through to 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 square feet (9.3 m²) in size. Later towers were constructed with the 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 was designated a "Resettlement estate" (徙置屋邨). Occupation of these blocks commenced in 1963.