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Some of the squatters whose Kau Wah Keng Old Village homes were razed by fire on Friday said yesterday they wanted to rebuild their homes, but a government official said reconstruction would be illegal.
A Home Affairs Bureau spokesman said 74 families comprising 130 people had been affected by the fire. 
Ho Lin-chun, 53, who said she had been squatting in the village since 1993, returned  to plan reconstruction of her family home because she said she was unhappy with conditions at interim-housing units.
Ho said she had no plans to apply for public housing because she did not have enough money. 'I don't want to move into a public housing unit,' she said. 'I would be kicked out in a few months because I can't pay the rent. We have no savings.'
She said her 65-year-old husband, a decorator, would be unable to work because all his equipment had been destroyed in the fire.  They had bought their house in 2001 for HK$80,000 from the previous owner, who had moved into public housing.
Villager Cheng Koon-cheung, 67, retired with a 10-year-old son, was on the mainland when the fire broke out. He returned yesterday to their charred home to search for any valuables. They found two HK$1 coins.
Cheng said he wanted to continue living at his house, which he had bought for HK$20,000 in 2001.
But a Lands Department spokesman said it was illegal to rebuild squats because such houses built after 1984 were not legally recognised. He said the department had yet to ascertain the legality of the razed homes but many squatters' houses in Kau Wah  Keng were unauthorised and residents would have to move to interim-housing flats.
A Housing Department spokesman said according to the latest information none of the residents were eligible for public housing. He said residents had to have lived in the squatter huts before 1982 to qualify for public housing. They would also need to have been registered in the 1984 squatter occupancy survey.
He said any eligible applicants would get  interim accommodation for three months before being allocated public housing units.
Meanwhile, some villagers whose dwellings survived the fire returned to their homes yesterday because they said they found conditions at the Shek Lei shelter unsatisfactory. Others urged the government to allocate them public housing as soon as possible.
A woman surnamed Ngan, 65, was seeking an immediate public housing allocation because of what she said were bad conditions at the temporary shelter. She said her husband  had to be admitted to hospital soon after arriving at the shelter on Saturday night.



Burnt-out squatters want to return