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. The development of public housing marked a radical shift from the
laissez-faire 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 and
Tai Hang Tung Estate. 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. The Resettlement Department built a total of 25 housing estates between 1954 and 1973. ==See also==