76. Tianjin Municipal People’s Government effectively solves the housing problem of low-income families by stepping up the construction of multi-layer housing guarantee system
http://www.tj-summerdavos.cn 2014-09-08 19:52

Tianjin sets improving housing conditions of low and middle-income earners as its main focus and puts the housing guarantee service into this year’s 20 campaigns addressing the public’s needs. Tianjin has constantly expanded the scale of low-income housing project, established a multi-layer and multi-form housing guarantee system supported by well-defined policies for all needy groups and eased the difficulties of low and middle-income families in housing in a well-planned and step-by-step manner.

In the recent years, based on the principle of “providing proper, multi-layer and multi-form support”, Tianjin has tried to make up for the deficiency in the market mechanism through making policies and resourcing public finance to speed up the construction of housing guarantee system. So far, four programs have been established, including low-rent housing, economically applicable housing, economical-rent housing and ceiling-priced commercial housing, in order to meet different demands of people at different income levels. Tianjin stands out among other cities in terms of the scope of guarantee housing policies, the number of guarantee housing units and the number of the citizens covered by the program.

During the “11th Five-Year Plan Period”, Tianjin added 335 000 guarantee housing units with a total area of 24 million square meters. 75 000 households were granted rent subsidies. 410 000 low and middle-income families which made up 20% of the urban households in poor housing conditions were covered by the housing guarantee system. 30% of the newly built apartments were guarantee housing. In 2011, the first year of the “12th Five-Year Plan”, Tianjin built 238 700 guarantee housing units with a total area of 16 million square meters and subsidized 85 300 households. In 2012, Tianjin will speed up its guarantee housing process: another 105 000 guarantee housing units with a total area of 9.05 million square meters will be built and another 10 000 households will be offered rent subsidies, helping more families in solving housing problems. By the end of the “12th Five-Year Plan Period”, a total of 830 thousand families will be provided with guarantee housing.

Tianjin gradually enlarges the guarantee housing scale year after year. Before 2008, low-rent housing could only be allocated to the relocated households and entitled households of six urban districts receiving subsistence allowances whose per-capita average usable area in their residences is below 7.5 m2. Starting from 2008, among elderly people of no family and households with seriously sick or disabled members, those who suffer poor living conditions and receive subsistence allowances were also allowed to apply for low-rent housing. In 2009, all households suffering poor housing conditions that receive subsistence allowances and receive allowance for entitled groups, that is, all the minimum income households, could also enjoy the low-rent housing. In 2010, those whose per-capita monthly income is below CNY 600 have also been allowed to apply for low-rent housing. Tianjin leads the country in expanding the low-rent housing project from minimum income households to low-income households. Tianjin’s amended policies on the application for low-rent housing took effect on June 1, 2011. They had been made more favorable for poor families. According to the original policies, if a family has one seriously disabled member or two disabled members and wants to apply for low-rent housing with subsidized home appliances, its average per capita income of the previous year must be below CNY 600 per month. Now, according to the new policies, the standard of the maximum income is raised to CNY 800 per capita per month. Similarly, according to the original policies, some families can apply for partly-subsidized low-rent housing but their average per capita income of the previous year must be below CNY 800 per month. Now, according to the new policies, the standard of the maximum income is raised to CNY 960 per capita per month. Meanwhile, according to the amended policies, martyrs’ families that are not granted pensions and families of killed soldiers (either died of disease or sacrificed in line of duty) will be covered by the low-rent housing program if they have not been included before.

In the “12th Five-Year Plan Period”, Tianjin aims to build 400 thousand low-rent housing units and include 70 thousand households into the program. It is estimated that 830 thousand families, that is, 35% of the urban households, will have been provided with guarantee housing in 2015. Meanwhile, Tianjin will strengthen the construction of housing security system to help everyone in need.

Source:Enorth.com.cn

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