The beneficiaries this year will be the 7,000 households with the lowest income that have lived on allowances issued by the civil affairs administration for more than six consecutive months and that occupy a living area of less than 6 square meters per capita.

Vice-Mayor Yang Xiong said, "The problem is crucial to Shanghai in establishing social stability and building a xiaokang society - one that is all-round better off."

The municipal government and the city's districts will continue to provide equal amounts of financial support for the program.

Even developed areas have families that cannot solve their housing problems through their own efforts due to different causes, said Yang. The government must therefore shoulder the responsibility, he added.

The city initiated a low-rent policy in Changning and Zhabei districts in October 2000. The policy was extended to the whole city in December 2001 after the enthusiastic welcome it received from poverty-stricken families in Changning and Zhabei.

By the end of February this year, about 3,700 households whose living area was less than 5 square meters per capita had moved into larger apartments with government help.

Cai Yutian, director-general of the Shanghai Municipal Housing and Land Resources Bureau, said, "As prices in the local real estate market keep on increasing, our job of finding proper apartments for the poorest families has been made more difficult."

The bureau has also announced it is increasing the allowance payable to those in different districts to help them find larger flats. The payments used to be 20, 30 or 40 yuan (US$2.42, US$3.62 and US$4.83) per square meter. The amounts will be raised to 24, 36 and 48 yuan (US$2.90, US$4.35 and US$5.80) per square meter

Cai also said the policy's eventual aim is to cover families whose living area is less than 7 square meters per capita and the bureau is now investigating how many such families are in the city.

To ensure that the neediest families benefit from the policy, the bureau will also regularly review the beneficiaries and demand that those whose living conditions have improved significantly through their own efforts pay back the money.

Huangpu District is giving interest-free loans to poor families buying a flat in certain areas.

Dong Jiamao, director of the Shanghai Low-Rent Housing Management Office, said,” We have to put more effort into developing a comprehensively practical system to solve the housing problem and let people see that the government is deeply concerned."

(China Daily April 4, 2003)