Masses of refugees surged into Hong Kong after World War II. People began to crowd into squatter areas that grew up on the slopes of the surrounding hills. On Christmas Day 1953, a massive fire swept the Shek Kip Mei squatter area. It lasted six hours and made 53 000 people homeless overnight. This prompted the Government to get directly involved in housing construction.

In 1954, the Government decided to construct multi-storey resettlement buildings to accommodate the victims of natural disasters and squatter residents affected by the Government's clearance exercises. In the same year, eight Mark I Blocks were completed on the site of the fire in Shek Kip Mei. A decade later, the population of the various resettlement estates had reached 500 000. The Government realised that, in order to meet the huge demand for housing, the construction of resettlement and low-cost housing must be accelerated.

To enhance the quality of public housing and relieve overcrowded conditions, the Government announced the biggest-ever Ten-year Housing Programme for the development of public housing in 1972. The new Hong Kong Housing Authority was formed to spearhead the programme. In 1978, the Housing Authority launched the Home Ownership Scheme to help people realise their dream of buying their own flats.

Significant changes took place in the management of public housing after the implementation of the Ten-year Housing Programme. The new Housing Authority (HA) started to provide services to residents in a more systematic and professional manner. In the 1990s, the HA introduced the Estate Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) Scheme. This enabled residents' representatives to participate in formal discussions about the management, maintenance and improvement of estates.

For the past few decades, the Housing Authority has been working to develop new designs for homes and estates in response to the changing needs and aspirations of the Hong Kong people. In recent years, the HA has introduced environmental concepts into public housing design and adopted the new "Universal Design" concept in its public housing, which addresses residents' needs in every aspect of their lives.