AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN CHINA—A CASE STUDY IN DATONG A CREATIVE PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING BY XIAOFEI XUE DR.NIHAL PERERA- ADVISOR BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA JULY 2013 1 Acknowledgements From USA to China, many people have helped shape this creative project, and I am grateful to them all. First and foremost, I would like to thank my adviser, Nihal Perera, who inspires me both intellectually and personally. With his tremendous knowledge of the field and his similar research interests, Nihal provided me with thoughtful criticisms and gracious support. I feel fortunate to have found a mentor like Nihal. I know the paper is not as perfect as he expected, but I am sure our conversation will continue and we can do something in the near future. I also want to thank my friends Fu Yang and Zhao Fengqi who helped me do the site visit. As well as my father in law, who provided access for me to collect information. I am very grateful to my wife Xiaochun, without her support, I would not finish this creative project and could not go to India and Nepal to study abroad. I feel fortunate to have her as my wife and friend. I also want to thank the local residents in Datong. These coal miners and their families. Their life stories encourage me to become a useful urban planner. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 2 List of figures and tables ............................................................................................................ 4 Chapter One Introduction Housing in general ..................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter Two The background 2.1 The brief summary of China’s urban housing development history .................................. 10 2.2 The affordable housing development in China .................................................................. 19 2.3 Major affordable housing programs in China .................................................................... 25 2.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter Three The study area 3.1 City of Datong.................................................................................................................... 29 3.2 The housing project ............................................................................................................ 31 3.3 The redevelop plan ............................................................................................................. 34 3.4 The 2010 housing survey ................................................................................................... 42 3.5 Findings of 2013 study....................................................................................................... 50 Chapter Four The suggestions for affordable housing project ..................................................................... 67 References ................................................................................................................................ 73 3 List of Figures and Tables List of Figures Figure 3.1 Location of Datong in China ................................................................................ 30 Figure 3.2 the city boundary of Datong ................................................................................. 31 Figure 3.3 Outside of the old coal miner’s house .................................................................... 32 Figure 3.4 Inside of old houses ................................................................................................ 33 Figure 3.5 Location Map of the old shelters ............................................................................ 38 Figure 3.6 Location Map of the new construction site ............................................................ 39 Figure 3.7 the new construction site ........................................................................................ 40 Figure 3.8: Local auto rickshaw which runs within the new resettlement project .................. 46 Figure 3.9 Corner park green spaces in District A ................................................................... 53 Figure 3.10 Green spaces in District A .................................................................................... 53 Figure 3.11A community fitness plaza .................................................................................... 55 Figure 3.12A community plaza ................................................................................................ 56 Figure 3.13A senior volunteer group activities ...................................................................... 57 Figure 3.14A safety information billboard............................................................................... 57 Figure 3.15 Distance between the centers of the project to the market ........................................................................................................... 59 Figure 3.16 and 3.17 The designed market .............................................................................. 60 Figure 3.18 A designed seafood market has become a tea house .......................................... 62 Figure 3.19A designed vegetables market has become a roller-skating club ........................ 63 Figure 3.20 The current market, located between Districts A and C ....................................... 64 Figure 3.21 A bedroom converted dining room ....................................................................... 66 Figure 4.1 and 4.2 A aerial view of the project ................................................................. 71,72 List of Tables Table 2.1 Percentage of Capital Construction Investment Funds Allocated to Urban Housing ........................................................................ 13 Table 2.2 China’s housing policy history ................................................................................. 20 Table 2.3 2003～2008 Construction status of Economic Comfortable Housing ............................................................................................. 23 Table 2.4 National Urban Housing Investment in 1982 .......................................................... 24 Table 3.1 Funding sources comparison .................................................................................... 37 Table 3.2 The community green spaces in the project ........................................................... 52 Table 3.3 Number of Community Plaza .................................................................................. 54 4 Chapter One Introduction: Housing in general Housing is the basic need of human beings. A house is not a shelter alone; it is a space to live, a commodity, and an object that can represent the identity of the inhabitants, express their lifestyle, and preserve the history of their lineage (Adesoji, David Jiboye, 2009). In addition, Anirban Mostafa (2006) argues that housing is not only a commodity for speculation or investment rather a home where the inhabitants can exercise their rights and link themselves to the community and the community of the region in which it grows. I focus on affordable housing or housing for people who can barely house themselves. In our contemporary societies, affordable housing is a mechanism to provide housing for low-income and mid-income families. While, most of the studies and current trends show the state and market are the major forces in housing provision system. The people’s inability to house themselves is a market related issue. However, according to the dominant ideology in contemporary capitalist and socialist societies is that it is the state’s responsibility to help the people who cannot provide their own housing to house themselves. Although, the private real estate developers have begun to step into the “affordable housing business” (Claudine Stuchell, 2008), people still think the same way. The direct provision of housing by the state is a widely accepted idea in most countries including United States of America, the United Kingdom, and China. I focus on China and the provision of housing on the state and local government standpoints. In China, the housing provision system shift from the old welfare provision system to a 5 market oriented system in 1990s. This is considered a big accomplishment from many perspectives and is highly valued by many leading scholars of housing (Lan Deng 2009, Yves Zenou 2011, Lee James 2000). The most popular state response to low income people’s housing needs is either to directly provide housing, or gives some monetary assistance such as housing provident fund, rent or home purchase subsidy, or tax relaxation. In reality, however, the housing reform made housing less or not affordable in many cities. Shanghai is one such example (Mostafa, 2006). Hence, most studies focus on how to create a more reasonable formula or organize a model that could better distribute funds and houses. They consider issues such as how to allocate the houses, how to subsidize the rent, how to reduce the taxes, how to control the fund distribution and how to administer the developers. However, the policies and actions in regards to affordable housing are dependent on a central provision