FORMER Kowloon Walled City residents facing eviction for occupying a garden in Tung Tau Estate can expect a reprieve allowing them to stay in their shantytown.
The 21 diehards, who have been camping out there for 18 months to fight for more compensation, were ordered by the High Court at a hearing last month to move by today. But the Housing Authority is expected to delay the eviction until later next week because staff are busy with other work.
A spokesman said: ''We try to be understanding and give them a last chance to resolve the dispute peacefully. But we are certain to act soon.'' The protesters have built huts in the garden since they were evicted from the Walled City in July 1992. They new flats and more money.
Eighteen of them owned homes elsewhere and a total of $9.7 million had been offered to the group as compensation, according to government records.
A residents' representative, Cheng Shing-sze, yesterday admitted some of them had owned homes elsewhere.
''But the Government should give us more. Some of us owned more than one unit in the Walled City. We demand a one-flat-for-flat offer,'' said Mr Cheng, formerly a herbalist in the condemned area.