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City targets cramped, hazardous quarters
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YOUNG firefighters Qian Lingyun and Liu Jie died a week ago in a blaze in a downtown apartment-dormitory packed with double beds and tangles of unsafe electrical wiring.
When the combustible apartment exploded into flames, the two firefighters in their 20s were blown out of windows and plunged to their death in Xuhui District on May 1. The cause is under investigation.
The apartment was a typical case of group rental in which a handful of tenants stay in one room, a practice that arose with the city’s rapid development, rising costs and influx of migrant workers and fresh graduates known as the “ant tribe.”
Group rental reached its peak in 2006, when an official survey in Zhabei, Minhang, Putuo districts and the Pudong New Area revealed that more than a third of residential areas had such unsafe accommodation.
Quarters are typically messy and dirty, with problems of sanitation, security, access and noise. They also pose fire hazards.
Neighbors complain, usually to no avail.
Over the years, city departments have tried to enforce regulations on space, health and safety. Large-scale crackdowns have taken place, but the results have been limited, since landlords want profits and tenants need space.
It’s supply and demand.
The latest regulations went into effect on May 1, followed by a crackdown by police, fire, housing and other departments. In some cases, the tenants are ordered to move out immediately and landlords told to dismantle illegal facilities, such as double bunk beds, and abide by regulations.
The rules state that no more than two persons may occupy a single room, except in the case of families. Each tenant is required to have at least 5 square meters of space. Families are exempted.
“We found more than 600 unsafe and crowded apartments in the first round of inspections and we will continue to monitor and check,” a Zhabei District housing official told media earlier.
In some cases, force may be necessary to evict tenants, he said, but that is difficult, time-consuming and requires considerable paperwork.
“It usually takes three months to organize the documents for eviction and by that time the tenants and landlord may be gone,” he said.
“The situation with these crowded apartments is really annoying,” says Mike Li, who lives in Putuo District. “I’ve tried complaining to the neighborhood committee and the property management company, I’ve dialed 110 (emergency), called the noise-reporting line and a lot of other departments. But nobody could solve the problem once and for all.”
For the past two years, Li has been bothered by numerous tenants in the next-door, 2-bedroom apartment of 60 square meters. The space is rented to the owner of a small, nearby eatery and used as an employee dormitory. The workers frequently return around midnight and bang on the door, waking Li up.
He has no idea how many people live there or whom to talk to, but he has seen at least four double-bunk beds when he passed the open door. Sometimes he sees more than 10 young men going in and out.
Complaining is useless
The neighborhood committee sometimes urges the young tenants to be more considerate and keep the noise down. Police also pay a visit and warn them.
“That works for two or three days, and then it’s back to the same normal racket,” Li says. “Plus, there’s always someone leaving and someone new, so it starts all over again.”
The property management company has sent a representative to talk to the employer, an elderly man who doesn’t live there and says he can’t control how people live. The landlord doesn’t answer calls from the property management company.
“Li is not the only one complaining,” says a manager from Li’s property company. “We are tired of them, too, but we have no law enforcement power to kick them out. We are only allowed to persuade them. That’s it.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with providing cheap and convenient quarters for poor people in this city where the gap between the rich and poor is huge,” says a landlord surnamed Xu, who declines to give his full name.
“The regulations and crackdown are ridiculous,” says Xu, a “second landlord,” who specializes in renting many apartments and subdividing them into tiny spaces to be leased. “Rooms are often at least 10 square meters, and that’s huge for two people. What a waste!”
The 35-year-old Shanghai native has rented more than 20 apartments, all in central areas such as People’s Square, Jing’an Temple and Xujiahui. Dividing each apartment into small rooms, he makes a profit of at least 1,500 yuan (US$240) a month for each big rented apartment, with regular annual increases of 10-15 percent.
Big crackdowns in 2007 and 2011 were inconvenient for a while, but when the pressure ended, the rooms filled up again.
Xu isn’t too worried about the last health and safety push.
“It’s basically supply and demand. It’s not like I forced them to live there,” he says. “The living cost is so high, what can they do? Considering housing prices, two people in a room is a real luxury for these kids from the countryside!”
New regulations require landlords who rent out 10 or more rooms or who have 15 or more tenants to register with police and set up a management system.
Xu just laughs. “They are saying I should voluntarily go and registers with the cops so they can easily find me in the next crackdown?”
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