More public housing needed

A new regulation, jointly released by several municipal government agencies on July 18, requires that every tenant in Beijing should have a living space of no less than 5 square meters, while no more than two persons can share one room. It is also forbidden to rent kitchens, restrooms, balconies or underground storage rooms to live in. Group renting has long been a problem in Beijing. There was a report in Beijing Daily recently about 25 tenants crowding into an 80-square-meter apartment in Jinsong zone; the distance between beds was only 30 centimeters and the tenants often had to wait in long queues to use the toilet. There have been many similar reports.

Safety can never be ensured in these apartments, and it will be difficult for people to escape if there is a fire. Worse, by dividing one apartment into an astonishing number of small units, the construction structure can be changed, thus threatening the safety of the whole building.

However, can the new regulation effectively put an end to the problem?