A total of 23 million houses have been renovated in China's rundown urban areas – bringing secured dwellings to more than 50 million residents in the past five years.
To meet the country's housing needs, China is trying to ensure housing security and supply through multiple channels – including leasing, sale, renovation and subsidization.
Public rentals have played a vital role in security and supply efforts for urban residents, with both physical housing and the allocation of housing subsidies offered. By the end of 2020, more than 38 million poor were moved into public rental houses with 22ms receiving housing subsidies.
All households living on minimum allowances and with low income were offered assistance and housing conditions of medium-to-low-income families were significantly improved.
"The community just organized Spring Festival activities, and it felt great to spend the holiday here," said Wu Qiong, who works for a company in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu province, and lives in a local residential community listed as a pilot programme of policy-regulated rental housing after renovation.
"Our apartment is shared by four people, and it's not far from where I work," Wu told the People's Daily, adding that the rent is lower than that of other apartments of similar condition in the same area. The community is surrounded by many restaurants as well as entertainment and sports facilities and 'we as young people have a strong sense of belonging," Wu said.
Eight old residential complexes in Fengdong New Town, Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, were recently renovated, with electric cables that used to hang in the air now buried underground, and the outer walls of buildings are newly painted. New parking spaces have been built.
"We visited more than 3000 households and adopted over 300 suggestions. We even adjusted the power line renovation plan for over 20 times," said Liang Yunlong, manager of the housing renovation project. The project kicked off last June,and all 82 residential buildings have been renovated, benefitting nearly 5000 families.
In the last two years, China's central government allocated more than 140 billion yuan (US$21.65 billion) to renovate 58,000 old urban residential communities across the country, benefitting nearly 10.43 million households.
"There were cracks on the walls from which the rain seeped in," said Cui Xiuying, a 74-year-old resident in Xiaoxu village, Dongying, east China's Shandong province, pointing to pictures of her old house on her mobile phone. She has been living alone for years, her house gradually deteriorating due to lack of renovation.
In the past five years, Dongying adopted flexible measures and advanced renovation of dilapidated houses in rural areas, meaning Cui's new house was built quickly.
The renovation of rural dilapidated houses has laid a solid foundation for China's battle against poverty in the last five years. According to the country's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, secured houses have been offered to all 23.4m registered poor families across China. China also helped more than 2.42m rural households living on minimum allowances, individuals living at home in extreme poverty and poor residents with disabilities to renovate their dilapidated houses.
This article was originally produced and published by People's Daily Online.
View the original at en.people.cn