China Digital Times

China news tagged with: housing (28)

• Photos: Ray of Sunlight

  

  Southern Weekend covers the bedspace apartments, or cage homes, in Hong Kong. Translated by CDT:

  

  

  

  

  

  

  In the summer of 2009, the air was heavy. Only the creaking of the fan could be heard.

  The sour stench of urine mixed with the smell of soaked sweat, filling the air of the 40 to 50 square meter rectangular room. 60-year-old Old Deng leaned against a wall, staring out into space. Just three floors below was a street in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok area. Most here are old residences, neon lights, and a sea of sign boards. They bring back memories of scenes in Hong Kong cop and robber movies, where the good is mixed with the bad.

  Inside the residence, against the wall, are 7 double-decked iron beds. In front of each bed is a wire lattice. It’s almost like a metal cage. At the moment, two men were napping inside the “cages.”

  Old Deng coughed a few times, and spit. After, he turned and pulled the iron lattice, and then locked it. He had placed a shower gel and detergent inside the “cage,” in the divider. His was the cleanest bed. Others were grimy, some with even small syringes inside.

  Old Deng was rail thin and stooped. He slowly strolled out.

  “Cage homes” have been a difficult social problem for Hong Kong’s government for years. They are legally known as bedspace apartments. Most renters are the old and enfeebled, Hong Kong’s unemployed, lone independents. They have been called “cage people.” Those concerned about their livelihoods have strongly criticized government policies, and a legislative council member even moved an “iron cage” onto the street, in the hopes of attracting more attention.

  Around ten people lived in Old Deng’s place, packed like sardines. Once, after a fire, the government required that two-levels be constructed. Currently, most have already lived here for twenty to thirty years.

  “Before, one bed would be 200 kuai in rent per month,” Old Deng said. Every two months, the price would go up, increasing by twenty percent. Now, each month’s rent costs 1200 Hong Kong dollars.

  Most “cage people” depend on government payouts. Comprehensive Social Security Assistance totals 2200 Hong Kong dollars; unemployment payment is 1830 HKD. Aside from this, there is also charity aid. Every weekday, a charitable organization provides him with dinner. They have already gotten used to this sort of life.

  Hong Kong’s government departments do not simply remove the bedspace apartments. They go through legislative channels to ensure that they meet standards for fire control, hygiene, and building safety. In 1994, Hong Kong published the “Bedspace Apartments Ordinance” in order to improve and reduce the number of “cage homes.” According to records at Hong Kong’s Home Affairs Bureau, there were 30 licensed bedspace apartments and 910 beds. Last year, that number has already decreased to 21 apartments and 775 beds.

  “Cage homes aren’t part of the Hong Kong government’s relief program. We’re only hear to check sanitation, to see if fire control meets standards,” explained the information officer for the Home Affairs Bureau.

  The rent for Old Deng’s place should normally be 6000-7000 HKD (sic) per month. The landlord hardly ever shows up, and has hired a representative to collect the rent. All of the “cage people” told us: “Don’t take pictures, or else the landlord will get upset.”

  After Old Deng left, the residence felt incredibly lonely. 80-year-old Luo Sheng sat by the doorway, complaining about his “bleak [situation],” and how he was lucky to have an older brother in Macau who would send him money whenever he came up a little short.

  “I’m old already. One or two of us are renting a place together, and if something happens, no one will know. [But] these are my brothers in the ‘cage’; we look after one another,” said the elderly man. But onlookers might say there isn’t much of a brotherhood to speak among the ‘cage people.’ Bickering and fighting often erupt, and sometimes a person would get slapped in the face over eating someone else’s bowl of food.

  Not long ago, due to narcotic use and drug concealment, one of the ‘cage people’ was taken away by police. About a half month later, he came back to the cage home.

  In the dark of the night, these ‘cage people’ look like statues as they sit idly. The only sound is the creaking of the fan, and the television’s news report announcement.

  For CNN, Eunice Yoon reports on another bedspace apartment complex (also with video):

  The 19 occupants share two toilets. A small rubber hose attached to a leaky faucet is what they use to wash themselves. Social workers who monitor the apartments said the electricity is donated, so a few of them have TVs. One person on the upper deck has an aquarium.

  One social workers said that because of the recession these homes are being occupied more frequently by those made jobless — people in their 30s and 40s. The social worker said none of the younger people wanted to speak on camera for fear their chances of finding work would be hurt.

  Chung, 67, is now waiting for welfare to kick in and is on a long list for public housing. The government says it is doing its best to meet its citizens’ needs, but Chung says he has lost all hope. Economic recovery or not, he feels forgotten.

  » Read more
  • November 10, 2009 10:14 PM

• China Addresses Care for Increasingly Aging Population

  

  Like many countries, China faces the demographic issue of an increasing aging population that is living longer.  11% of the Chinese population (153 million people) are age 60 or over, and this demographic is expected to increase to 248 million by 2020.

  

  To promote services for pensioners, earlier this year the country set the goal of promoting care services for the elderly in all urban communities by 2010. In rural areas, 80 percent of townships will have at least one welfare center for retired persons… [Currently,] Special welfare care centers are still in short supply around the country. The number of beds they offer could accommodate only about 1.16 percent of current elderly population.

  To help accommodate this growing population, local governments have built seniors’ housing, such as this one in Zhejiang Province.

  China has been celebrating “Seniors Day” since 1989.  China has also created a monthly “Centarian Allowance” for seniors over 100 years old.

  Read also CDT’s past posts, such as China Expects Communities to Take More Care of Elderly People

  (Image courtesy of www.photoeverywhere.co.uk)

  » Read more
  • October 13, 2008 6:58 PM

• Wind Knocked out of China’s Housing Prices

  

  From Economic Observer Online:

  In the post-Olympic era, a wave of price cuts for real estate appeared to have swept across major cities in China, which earlier this year was still a property hotspot.

  Property developers in Shenzhen, southern Guangdong province, were among the first to slash prices to boost the sluggish local real estate market.

  The move, however, triggered a domino effect across the country, with developers in Hangzhou, Beijing and other large cities following suit.

  » Read more
  • October 10, 2008 5:30 AM

• Tsinghua Professor: Big Chinese Cities Need Slums for Migrant Workers

  

  From Xinhua:

  A Chinese scholar from one of China’s most prestigious universities claimed slums should be allowed to exist in China’s big cities to provide shelters for the urban poor.

  “It is no shame for big cities to have such areas. On the contrary, Shenzhen and other cities should take initiatives to build cheap residential areas for low-income residents including migrant workers who want to stay in the cities where they work,” said Tsinghua University Professor Qin Hui.

  “By building those areas, big cities could show more consideration for low-income residents, and provide them with more welfare,” Qin said in his speech at a public forum on urbanization in Shenzhen over the weekend.

  Read also Rural migrant workers need housing by Zhang Ming’ai.

  » Read more
  • April 15, 2008 6:17 PM

• New Measures To Ensure Affordable Housing – Hu Yinan

  

  From China Daily:

  National guidelines on economically affordable housing were released on Friday night along with new State measures on housing for low-income families, which come into effect on Saturday.

  Economically affordable houses ought to be around 60 sq m per unit, said the guidelines jointly released by the Ministry of Construction, the National Development and Reform Commission, and five other ministries.

  It said eligible purchasers will “have limited property rights”, and that the apartments can only be directly sold after five years. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • December 2, 2007 4:49 AM

• Shanghai Cracking Down on Group-Rentals – Guangzhou Daily

  

  Chinese are a hard working people. But faced with skyrocketing housing prices, Chinese also have to think hard how to live cheap, such as refugee-like group rentals (群租) in Shanghai. Translated from Guangzhou Daily:

  In Shanghai, the average new-apartment price has gone up from 8,818 yuan per square meter in August 2006 to 10,280 yuan this August. For a new college graduate like Zhang Qiang who came over to Shanghai for work from the Northeast, his 1,300 yuan/month internship salary doesn’t allow him to live in a nice spacious apartment.

  Zhang does the math for the reporter: for a 80-square-meter apartment at a residential compound, called ‰∏≠Ëøú‰∏§ÊπæÂüé, it costs 4,000 yuan a month to rent, way too much for a newcomer to Shanghai. But it’s much more affordable to get a tiny space, say a 3-square-meter box, in a “renovated” apartment for 700 yuan/month. And with that kind of living, he still saves no money during his one-year internship period. Meals will cost him 350 yuan a month, transit 6 a day.

  » Read more
  • September 12, 2007 8:37 PM

• Slideshow: The Longtang Project – theshanghaieye

  

  Amidst China’s rush to modernity, some hidden neighborhoods in Shanghai, yet untouched by urbanization, embody a sense of history and nostalgia. From theshanghaieye via Flickr:

  Ever wonder why most Chinese don’t have any concept of personal space? The answer to this riddle is hidden at home.

  Take a peek at one of the numerous Longtangs (lane-houses) of the city where 60% of the Shanghainese once lived, and you’ll understand the local psyche.

  The Brits and French originally designed these 3-story homes in the 1920s as single-family residences. Later, the Communist government turned them into beehives, packing numerous households into this small space that shared a single kitchen and bathroom. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • June 17, 2007 7:55 PM

• Michael Wolf: 100 x 100 – Jonah Samson

  

  From Cool Hunting blog:

  Shek Kip Mei Estate, Hong Kong’s oldest public housing estate, is composed of 100 rooms, each closet-like in size at only 100 square feet and built in response to a devastating fire in the 1950s that left thousands homeless. In a new series of photographs called “100 x 100,” Michael Wolf captures the residents of this housing complex who are almost enveloped by the diminishing space around them, their belongings stacked to the ceiling. [Full Text]

  

  » Read more
  • June 15, 2007 8:55 AM

• No Place to Call Home – The Economist

  

  From The Economist:

  In a narrow alleyway in Liguanzhuang village, residents idle away a hot afternoon near a stinking rubbish dump, worrying about when the bulldozers will come. To prepare for the Olympic Games next year, Beijing’s authorities are removing such eyesores. Old villages surrounded by the expanding city are being demolished. With them goes cheap housing, vital to the city’s huge pool of migrant workers. China does not like to admit it has slums. But it does, and it will find it needs them.

  In the past two years or so, cities across China have announced plans to “transform” these “villages within cities”. Because of the Olympics in August 2008, Beijing faces a particularly tight deadline. The aim is to “renovate” (ie, usually, flatten) 171 urban villages by the end of this year. Between 2005, when the campaign was launched, and the end of last year, 114 of them were thus transformed. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • June 8, 2007 7:39 AM

• Ownership or Housing Right? – Lui Qiu Luwei (Èóæ‰∏òÈú≤Ëñá)

  

  Lui Qiu Luwei (Èóæ‰∏òÈú≤Ëñá), a Hong Kong journalist/blogger wrote a post about China’s property market. Hegel Chong translated on his Reading China blog:

  Today I attended a conference. I agree with the view of one of the scholars on China’s problem of property market. He pointed out a crucial issue. Now our aim is to ensure everybody has accomodations or everybody owns flat?

  » Read more
  • May 7, 2007 8:52 AM

• Nailing Down a Setttlement – Simon Elegant

  

  
  
  

  From The China Blog – TIME:

  My colleague in the Time Beijing bureau Jodi Xu writes: the media frenzy over the Chongqing “nail house” has highlighted similar cases in other parts of China, and may ultimately encourage other homeowners to also dig in their heels. A similar case in Shanghai (see picture below) ended a week ago after two years of negotiations when house was torn down. Local government officials originally offered an apartment and $250,000 to the husband and wife owners, but they asked for an extra $250,000. [Full Text]
  
  

  The top photo is another “nail house” case in Guangzhou, from Lian Yue’s Eighth Continent blog. The poster says: Supporting the property law; Against force eviction; Holding on the island in Guangzhou; In solidarity with the island in Chongqing.

  » Read more
  • March 28, 2007 3:05 PM

• China to stabilize property prices – China Daily

  

  From ChinaDaily.com:

  
  

  Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan has pledged to stabilize soaring property prices by putting up more real estate for sale, standardizing the market and offering more and better houses to low-income families.

  By the end of last year, 512 of the 657 cities had set up the low-rent housing scheme, and the Ministry of Construction ordered that it be extended to the rest of the country this year.

  The meeting emphasized a combination of market mechanism and governmental regulations, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • February 26, 2007 9:56 PM

• Housing, Medicine, Jobs — Chinese Dreams for 2007 – Xinhua News Agnecy

  

  From Xinhua News Agency via China.org:

  Four years working as a white-collar worker in China’s largest city of Shanghai, Liu Xiaoqiang feels he’s far from being able to afford his own apartment there.

  He makes 5,000 yuan (US$640) a month as an IT engineer, but that’s only half the average price for a square meter of housing in downtown Shanghai.

  When Liu finished college study in 2002, he had vowed to buy an apartment in three years at most so that his parents would leave their countryside home in central Hubei Province and live with him….[Full Text]

  » Read more
  • January 2, 2007 5:09 PM

• China’s Property Prices Advance at a Slower Pace – Zheng Xiaolu

  

  From The Wall Street Journal:

  China’s year-to-year property price rises slowed for a third straight month in September, according to official data.

  Property prices in 70 large and midsize Chinese cities rose 5.3% in September, 0.2 percentage point slower than August’s rise, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its Web site.

  Month-to-month, property prices in the 70 cities in September rose 0.4%, the same pace as in August, according to the NDRC data.

  Shenzhen had the fastest pace of price rises among the 70 cities, with property prices increasing 11.9% in September from a year earlier, slowing from a 12.9% rise in August. Beijing followed with an increase of 9.5%, compared with a 9.9% rise in August, the data showed.[Full Text]

  » Read more
  • November 3, 2006 11:26 AM

• Privatized housing impedes cooling efforts – John Ng

  

  From Asia Times:

  Housing privatization in Chinese cities, which only began in the early 1990s, has proceeded at an amazingly fast pace. After a mere 10-plus years, more than 80% of Chinese urbanites now own their dwellings.

  While the Chinese media boasts that the proportion of private housing in Chinese cities is now higher than that in some advanced countries such as the US or the United Kingdom, analysts say the high degree of privatization in fact poses a challenge to Beijing’s policy of bringing down housing prices. And it also explains why the secondary housing market in China has remained inactive. [Full text]

  » Read more
  • July 5, 2006 1:54 PM

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