Housing the Urban Poor in a Marketised System in China

Abstract

Housing provision in Chinese cities has changed from a socialist welfare system to a marketised system in a short period of 20 years. Where and how do the urban poor live under this marketised system? What policies have the government developed to help the poor? How effective are these policies? This article contributes to the literature on recent housing changes in China and provides some answers to these questions. Discussion and analysis is based on the study of recent government reports, policy documents and fieldwork set in Beijing and four other cities. While many countries have reduced their social housing provision either under the influence of neo-liberal ideologies, or the pressure to cut expensive social expenditure during the global financial crisis, China has substantially reconstructed its social housing provision system to provide assistance to the urban poor. Over the last five years, housing support has been given to many poor families through either direct housing allocation or through means tested housing benefits. The wider impact of this system however has been affected by the exclusion of millions of poor rural migrants working in cities.

中国城市仅用了20年时间, 就将社会主义福利分房制度变成了市场化制度。在市场化制度下, 城市贫民住在哪里？政府出台了哪些政策帮助这些穷人？这些政策效果如何？ 本文试图对当下中国住房变迁的研究做些贡献, 并回答上述问题。本文的探讨和分析基于对近期政府报告和政策文件的研读, 以及在北京和其他4城市的实地调查。许多国家或受新自由主义意识形态的影响, 或迫于全球财政危机下削减社会开支的压力, 纷纷减少了社会保障性住房的供给, 而中国却大力调整了其社会保障性住房体系, 为城市贫民提供帮助。近5年来, 贫困家庭通过直接的住房分配或须经家庭经济调查的住房补贴, 得到了住房支持。然而由于这一制度将上百万进城务工的农村贫困家庭排除在外, 其影响面受到限制。

Keywords:

• Housing policy
• urban poor
• migrants
• China

Acknowledgements

This article has benefited from fieldwork in a research project on Urban Sprawl and Landless Farmers in China, supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (Ref: RF/7/RFG/2007/0290 or RFG/11053). The author would like to thank Professor Rebecca Chiu (Guest Editor) and the two referees for their very constructive comments.