THE problem of well-off tenants receiving subsidised housing benefits is as old as Hong Kong's public housing programme - a fact we must bear in mind in considering whether public housing tenants should be allowed to own private domestic premises.
When Governor Alexander Grantham launched what turned out to be one of the world's biggest public housing programmes after the 1953 Shek Kip Mei squatter fire, the territory was a much poorer place.
However, even then, as the Government's annual report for 1954 noted, while some squatters were poor, 'many were quite well off'. Among these well-off squatters were those who had sold their proper dwellings in private tenement buildings to more wealthy immigrants from China.
But no attempt was made to separate the well-off squatters from the destitute, and all were rehoused in newly-built resettlement blocks because the priority was to clear the squatter areas and house the people in better conditions.
The policy was understandable. Just imagine the complexity of screening tens of thousands of squatters and the violent confrontations that could have resulted if some had not been given public housing because they were relatively well off.
Forty years on, it is still the Housing Authority's policy to allocate rental units to people affected by clearance of temporary housing areas and squatter areas, regardless of their personal wealth and income.