This year, there will be 150 low-rent apartments available, 121 of which are located in the Sunshine Homestead in the Jingzhou Development Zone. These low-rent apartments have been allocated to 19 households in Jingzhou Development Zone, 96 households in Shashi District, and 35 households in Jingzhou District. The 150 households were selected through a rigorous system of review. The applications were initially accepted by communities, later reviewed by Subdistrict Offices, and then reviewed again by Civil and Housing Affairs Departments, and finally, the qualified households were shortlisted based on the degree of their housing difficulties, and other relevant factors before the shortlist was publicized through the media and on the internet for public opinion.
There are two types of low-rent apartments: two bedrooms and one living room, and one bedroom and one living room, covering 40 square meters and 60 square meters respectively. These are being rented at 0.8 yuan per square meter, which means the monthly rent on these apartments will be lower than 50 yuan. The shortlisted households were divided into several groups based on their sizes, and the low-rental apartments were also categorized based on size before they were allocated through a lottery system. This ensured that larger households would be given larger apartments, and vice versa.
In order to show consideration for disabled, seriously ill, and elderly people, the households with members who were visually impaired or had limited mobility were given top priority, followed by those with elderly or seriously ill family members. These two priority groups were allocated apartments on lower floors through the lottery system. The rest of the households were divided into ordinary groups, and were allocated apartments on the remaining floors. The entire allocation process was conducted under the supervision of a notary agency.
Since 2007, when the low-rent housing was first constructed, over the past seven years, the Jingzhou government has resolved housing problems for nearly 2,000 low-income households. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, starting next year, low-rent housing and public-rent housing will be combined and collectively referred to as public rental housing. This will improve efficiency, and avoid the waste of housing resources. The needs of original low-rent housing recipients will be given priority, and preferential policies will be kept. At present, public rental housing construction is also on-going in Jingzhou.


Note:
Low-rent housing is social security housing provided by the government to urban households living with housing difficulties below the minimum living security line in the form of rent subsidies or housing apportion.