Taking Stock: Rural People, Poverty, and Housing in the 21^stCentury

Is China's public housing programme destined to fail? Evidence from the city of Changsha

“…Public dwellings with initial quality defects require additional maintenance works; however, there are regular funding shortages for operation and replacement (Byrne, Day, & Stockard, 2003;Connerly, 1986). The lack of funding from higher authorities inevitably causes maintenance to be deferred, leading to inadequate repairs and replacement and thereby intensifying the obsolescence or decay of buildings and facilities (Power, 1987).…”

“…Too frequently, the severe mismanagement of public housing projects exacerbates the deterioration of their physical conditions (Byrne et al, 2003;Priemus, 1986;Schill & Wachter, 1995). Public housing authorities are prone to forming an inverted pyramid organisation, with fewer people employed at the property level in response to centralised public housing funding and reporting systems (Byrne et al, 2003).…”

“…Too frequently, the severe mismanagement of public housing projects exacerbates the deterioration of their physical conditions (Byrne et al, 2003;Priemus, 1986;Schill & Wachter, 1995). Public housing authorities are prone to forming an inverted pyramid organisation, with fewer people employed at the property level in response to centralised public housing funding and reporting systems (Byrne et al, 2003). Public dwellings with original quality deficiencies and a concentration of ungovernable tenants bring about substantial additional property management tasks, which require higher management capacities and more advanced management technology and practices (Hunt, 2001).…”

“…T A B L E 1 The characteristics of ghettoised public housing Author(s) Identified characteristics Jones et al (1979) • Having five or more significant problems among income-expense ratios, vacancy rates, operating costs, rent delinquency rates, family turnover rates, building condition, vandalism costs, crime rates, tenant satisfaction and services provided Priemus (1986) • Technical decay: defect of building technology and building physics, maintenance lags increasingly behind what is required and arrears of maintenance grow • Social decay: residents with greater socio-economic strength leave, whereas socio-economically weaker groups pour in; residents with nuisance (drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, vandals and criminals); limited social control; feel unsafe outside homes; and get a bad name • Financial decay: sharp increase of the items 'maintenance upon change of tenants' and 'repair and damage'; major operation performed earlier than planned to improve the housing situation; and growing losses from the operation NCSDPH (1992) • Families living in distress: dropout rate, unemployment rate and average income • Serious crimes: crime rate, drug-related crime rate, violent crime rate and access to building controlled by security • Barriers to managing the environment: vacancy rate, turnover rate, low rent collection and rate of units rejected by applicants • Physical deterioration of buildings: per cent of reconstruction cost, density or units/acre, level of deferred maintenance and major system deficiencies Kasarda (1993) • Poverty: proportion of the residents below the poverty line (NCSDPH, 1992;Newman & Schnare, 1997;Holloway et al, 1998;Byrne et al, 2003;Talen & Koschinsky, 2014). The geographical isolation of housing estates, together with the concentration of underprivileged population, results in a reduction of cross-class interactions and a lack of positive role models (Crump, 2002;Musterd & Deurloo, 1997).…”