Still, local governments often continued to find ways to resist CRH or to keep its eligibility criteria as narrow as possible, because of both financial burdens and concerns over property values in surrounding areas (Deng et al. 2011: 176-7). The introduction of the watershed SC circular Suggestions for Solving Housing in 2007 is often viewed as marking a Difficulties of Low-Income Households in Cities and Towns new era for affordable housing and a shifting policy focus from emphasis on the ownership approach supplemented by cheap rental for low-income households, towards a multi-layered approach with specific policy instruments for each target population (SC 2007; Huang 2012: 948). First, the new policy framework promotes the expansion of CRH for lowest-income to income households with housing difficulties, with instruments of subsidies” (zujin butie) “rent and provision” (shiwu that aims at full coverage of all households that need peizu) “housing housing assistance (ying (Huang 2012: 948). Second, the policy eliminated the bao jin bao) ambiguity in ECH and redefined the target population as low-income households only, which deviates from previous broadly-defined low and lower-middle income families (Huang 2012: 948). On the other hand, the New 10 Articles in April 2010 showed more political commitment at the central level for affordable housing and may signify the final emergence of “protective countermovement”, by promising to increase land supply for affordable housing and set up quantitative goals, while shifted away from viewing housing as the growth engine to control speculative housing demand (SC 2010; Huang 2012: 947). The central government also began to emphasize a new policy goal of meeting the needs of more vulnerable groups, such as households” (jiaxinceng) that fall in between the eligibility criteria of ECH and “sandwiched CRH, new employees as well as migrants (Huang 2012: 943, 949). Specifically, the introduction of PRH was intended to address the urgent needs of these groups that are sometimes labeled the urban poor”. “new
Still, local governments often continued to find ways to resist CRH or to keep its eligibility criteria as narrow as possible, because of both financial burdens and concerns over property values in surrounding areas (Deng et al. 2011: 176-7). The introduction of the watershed SC circular Suggestions for Solving Housing Difficulties of Low-Income Households in Cities and Towns in 2007 is often viewed as marking a new era for affordable housing and a shifting policy focus from emphasis on the ownership approach supplemented by cheap rental for low-income households, towards a multi-layered approach with specific policy instruments for each target population (SC 2007; Huang 2012: 948). First, the new policy framework promotes the expansion of CRH for lowest-income to households with housing difficulties, with instruments of “rent subsidies” (zujin butie) and “housing provision” (shiwu peizu) that aims at full coverage of all households that need housing assistance (ying bao jin bao) (Huang 2012: 948). Second, the policy eliminated the ambiguity in ECH and redefined the target population as low-income households only, which deviates from previous broadly-defined low and lower-middle income families (Huang 2012: 948). On the other hand, the New 10 Articles in April 2010 showed more political commitment at the central level for affordable housing and may signify the final emergence of “protective countermovement”, by promising to increase land supply for affordable housing and set up quantitative goals, while shifted away from viewing housing as the growth engine to control speculative housing demand (SC 2010; Huang 2012: 947). The central government also began to emphasize a new policy goal of meeting the needs of more vulnerable groups, such as “sandwiched households” (jiaxinceng) that fall in between the eligibility criteria of ECH and CRH, new employees as well as migrants (Huang 2012: 943, 949). Specifically, the introduction of PRH was intended to address the urgent needs of these groups that are sometimes labeled the “new urban poor”. income
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