TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable citiesutilised and in 1999 they were selected for redevelopment to become part of thenew Kwai Chung Estate. Relocation of the affected factory tenants was to beresolved before redevelopment could be started, so special ex-gratia allowanceswere made to assist the affected factory tenants to re-establish their businesses inprivate sector accommodation.6.1.4 Housing for the ElderlyFrom the start of the housing programme, family structures have changed wherefamily sizes have declined and populations of the older estates have aged. Thereare more single elderly people in the older estates and this particularly vulnerablegroup required positive planning. The HA had been extending its support servicesfor the elderly since the early 1970’s, but because of the high housing demand,accommodation for elderly was only provided on a shared basis. By the late 1980’sthe demand was acute and the HA built more self-contained small flats for 1 to 2persons in its main new residential block of the time, the Harmony block, andthough a step in the right direction, this still did not cater for the demand.To try to address this problem more effectively and improve standards, new blocksof small flats were designed to be linked to the main residential blocks and makeuse of their lift and utility services. These Annex blocks, as they became known,were to become the most common way of addressing the need for small flats. Inthe mid 1990s the HA embarked on a programme of specific developments for theelderly with self–contained small flats for single persons and couples, providingrecognised accessibility standards and allowing for appropriate support services tobe provided by the NGOs. These buildings were known as “Small HouseholdDevelopments” and a programme of 25 such projects was launched in 1995 withflats of 17m 2 to 22m 2 for single persons and couples, built up to 20 storeys inheight.One such block with 240 self-contained flats was built in Kwai Chung byarranging a site swap with the LCSD for a small but under-utilised playground278