Xu Huiming, lives in a 30-sq-m house in downtown Liwan district, Guangzhou. She dreams of moving to a bigger home.
"But we can't afford to buy a bigger place, the price is just too high," Xu, who lives with three family members, said.
Xu, 45, who was laid off three years ago, recently applied to buy a low-cost home built by the government.
"This is the only sort of property we can afford to buy," she said yesterday.
Xu does not know whether the government will approve the application, but she hopes the so-called "economy houses" will be built.
The local government in Guangzhou, capital of South China's GuangdongProvince, has promised to build economy houses for poor families.
It has earmarked 1.3 billion yuan ($173 million) this year for their construction.
In addition, the construction of a large number of low-cost homes in Tongde, Datang and Jinshazhou is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
"With more economy houses available this year, all poor families that were approved by the government in 2005 will have their new, bigger homes," Chen Song, an official with the local land resource and house administrative authority, said.
By 2005, the city had approved 5,643 poor families' applications to buy low-cost homes, of which 2,190 have since moved to their new homes.
During the first eight months of this year, the local government approved applications from a further 570 families on low incomes.
Chen said families that share a living space amounting to less than 10 sq m per person are defined as extremely poor. Only these families are qualified to receive assistance from the government and purchase or rent low-cost houses.
"We will soon start construction of low-cost houses in other areas of Dang'an New Street, Guocun village, Wansongyuan and Tai'an," Chen said.
The city has an estimated 9,200 poor families that are expected to have bigger houses by 2010, Chen said.
(China Daily 09/20/2007 page 4)
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About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
