Beijing plans to stop renting out basements
By Pan Zheng |
January 15, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BEIJING is going to forbid renting out basements and nearly 1 million "beipiao" people may lose their current residence and become homeless.
"Beipiao" refers to people who live and work in Beijing without a registered residence in the city. They change their residence from time to time and many of them settle in underground civil air defense shelters because the rent is cheap.
Such shelters were mostly built in the 1980s but left unused.
In the 1990s, the Beijing government started to support renting out these shelters, and many underground hotels appeared during this period.
Since 2004, an influx of migrants has boosted the popularity of the shelters.
A new Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development regulation, which takes effect on February 1, states that basements can no longer be rented out for residential use.
It will take six months to one year to clear all the residents out of the underground shelters and that these spaces will be reserved for public use in future, the Beijing Times quoted Wang Yongxin, the director of the Beijing Civil Defense Bureau, as saying.
"It's pretty dangerous when so many people live together in such a small space," Zhou Xiangping, an official of the bureau told the newspaper.
About 150,000 people live in Beijing's air defense shelters, and another 800,000 reside in ordinary basements.
"Beipiao" refers to people who live and work in Beijing without a registered residence in the city. They change their residence from time to time and many of them settle in underground civil air defense shelters because the rent is cheap.
Such shelters were mostly built in the 1980s but left unused.
In the 1990s, the Beijing government started to support renting out these shelters, and many underground hotels appeared during this period.
Since 2004, an influx of migrants has boosted the popularity of the shelters.
A new Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development regulation, which takes effect on February 1, states that basements can no longer be rented out for residential use.
It will take six months to one year to clear all the residents out of the underground shelters and that these spaces will be reserved for public use in future, the Beijing Times quoted Wang Yongxin, the director of the Beijing Civil Defense Bureau, as saying.
"It's pretty dangerous when so many people live together in such a small space," Zhou Xiangping, an official of the bureau told the newspaper.
About 150,000 people live in Beijing's air defense shelters, and another 800,000 reside in ordinary basements.
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