Public housing in Menghe
Public housing in Menghe is governed by a set of mass housing programs intended to provide affordable housing to lower-income urban residents. It is especially targeted toward rural-to-urban migrants, who contributed to the country's rapid urbanization from 1988 onward but who usually arrived in urban areas with limited savings and worked low-wage jobs. Rent is below market levels, but residents must meet certain eligibility requirements such as low income in order to qualify.
The National Housing Authority sets central regulations regarding public housing, but local governments (minor and major cities) are responsible for building, leasing, and maintaining the properties through their own Housing Authorities. This results in considerable variation in the quality of public housing between small inland cities and wealthy coastal ones.
History
Under the rule of the Menghe People's Communist Party from 1964 to 1987, all urban housing in the country was publicly owned, though Party members and government officials were sometimes assigned to large and effectively private homes as part of their job benefits. Homelessness was rare and informal slums were absent from major cities, but this was partly a result of internal passport policies designed to suppress rural-to-urban migration.
When the new Menghean government came to power in the Decembrist Revolution, one of its early goals was to encourage economic growth and industrial upgrading, which meant freeing up more surplus agricultural labor to move to the cities. At the same time, however, the new leadership feared that rapid urbanization in such a low-income context would result in the growth of slums on the urban periphery. This not only posed a problem for citizens' quality of life, but also threatened to create islands of lawlessness which could serve as sites of entrenched opposition to the new regime.
Chairman Choe Sŭng-min was an early advocate of expanding the public housing system through a new campaign of apartment construction, but limited fiscal resources meant that local governments were unable to meet early construction targets. The first wave of public housing, built in 1988 through 1998, consisted primarily of hastily built compact units with a barracks or dormitory layout, complete with communal restrooms and kitchens. Many of these were run by state-owned companies as a means of drawing workers to the city. Embarrassed by these shortfalls, the central government delayed its timeline for abolishing the internal passport system, and set up a "vanguard generation" program encouraging working-age sons of rural families to move to the cities first.
As economic growth accelerated and the government's fiscal resources grew, major cities were able to improve the quality and quantity of their public housing systems. The Fourth Five-Year Plan, initiated in 2003, included an ambitious Ten Million Homes Campaign (천만 주택 구상, Chŏnman Jutaek Gusang). By this time, the construction industry was becoming a major source of economic growth in and of itself, employing large numbers of construction workers and creating a high demand for steel, brick, and concrete. A second Ten Million Homes Campaign followed in 2008, but by this time market demand for construction was already high, and by 2015 the National Assembly was debating whether or not to curb excess production in public housing.
Eligibility
In order to qualify for public rental housing in the Socialist Republic of Menghe, an applicant must meet a set of minimum qualifications set by the National Housing Authority, laid out below:
- Applicant is 18 years of age or older
- Applicant is one of the following:
- Citizen of Menghe
- Permanent Resident of Menghe
- Foreigner holding a valid Work Permit
- If male, applicant has completed mandatory military service, or has valid documentation of an exemption
- Applicant's total household consists of six people or fewer
- Applicant's total household income falls below a locally determined threshold for that household size
Because each city operates its own Housing Authority, the income threshold to qualify for rental housing differs throughout the country based on local income distributions and housing prices, and may differ between districts of a major city. Local Housing Authorities may also add additional requirements on top of these. During the 1990s and 2000s, for example, many large cities sought to limit rural immigration by requiring that applicants have official resident status in the city or proof of employment for all adult members of the household.
The requirements for purchasing a public apartment under the Home Ownership Program are stricter, and require a minimum age of 21, proof of employment, Citizen status for the applicant, and Permanent Resident status or higher for all other household members. The maximum income threshold is higher, however, and can be higher still for "sandwich" housing for the emerging middle class.
As a measure to limit speculation, the National Housing Authority forbids any resident from re-selling a purchased public apartment until they have occupied it for a continuous period of five years. Local Housing Authorities also regulate eligibility conditions for buying a public apartment put up for sale by its previous owner.
Residential Communities
Because public housing projects during the construction boom enjoyed large economies of scale, and because they were supplied with discounted land, many tended to be built in the form of large housing complexes known as Jutaek Danji (주택 단지 / 住宅團地) or Danji for short. These consist of a cluster of apartment buildings built in a similar style on a contiguous property, and are sometimes separated from the surrounding streets by a low wall with security gates, especially in Sandwich Class housing for middle-income residents.
In addition to housing, Danji are often responsible for providing residents with some local services, and may include parking garages, convenience stores, and recreational spaces within the enclosed area. A few of the larger ones are integrated into the local government as Myŏn, and have their own public schools, medical clinics, and community centers. Nevertheless, the quality of the included services varies from one Danji to another, and units built during the 1990s generally consist solely of compact residential buildings.
Menghean public housing complexes are usually governed by a Neighbors' Association, or I'ut Johab (이웃 조합). Like an informal local government, it consists of an elected council of residents paired with a Party representative and a representative of the city's Housing Authority. A Neighbors' Association sets community policies regarding noise levels, the use of common space, and property maintenance, and sometimes gathers a pool of funds from residents to beautify the property or organize community events.
Home Ownership Program
In 2002, the National Housing Authority encouraged local governments to implement home ownership schemes which would allow renters of public housing to purchase their apartments at discounted rates. Donggyŏng was the first city to put this policy into law, selling off some of its existing public apartments in 2003 and opening long-lease-only complexes in 2004. The goal of these programs was to give long-term residents a greater stake in their apartments, and to produce a new pool of wealth for members of the urban middle class.
When this policy went into action, the demand for affordable housing still exceeded the available supply, and the housing market remained largely state-owned. The central government was particularly concerned about speculation, which might result in well-connected residents buying up multiple apartments and sitting on them unproductively while arriving workers awaited homes. As such, the National Housing Authority set central guidelines on the purchase of public apartments, prohibiting the sale of multiple public apartments to a single owner and requiring that homeowners reside in a public apartment for at least five years before re-selling it. Many large cities created incentives for long-term continuous ownership of a single property, especially for middle- and lower-middle-class residents.
Types
Public Rental Housing is the most common form of public housing in Menghe, and consists of flats which are owned by the local government and rented out at below-market rates. Public rental housing is the cheapest type of public housing in Menghean cities, and is often the only option available for migrant workers arriving from the countryside.
Company Housing consists of apartments built by state-owned or public-private enterprises, usually to house workers for a new factory project. These are regulated by the local city's Housing Authority, and may receive construction subsidies, but they are owned and managed by the company itself. Company housing projects were most common during the early boom of the 1990s, though since then their construction has declined, and some large cities have bought them back and converted them to Public Rental or Home Ownership use.
Home Ownership Program apartments differ from public rental housing in that residents purchase the apartment up-front rather than paying a monthly rent. Home Ownership Program apartments are generally similar to their Public Rental Housing counterparts, and it is not uncommon for a single apartment building to have rooms of both types, but the home ownership program is usually marketed toward lower-middle-income residents.
Sandwich Class Housing was first implemented in 2003 to provide better housing for the "Sandwich class," lower middle class residents who earned incomes above the public housing eligibility threshold but still had a difficult time finding affordable private housing. Compared to standard public housing, these tend to be roomier and sit on better property; Donggyŏng, Sunju, and Insŏng have even developed "Luxury public housing" .
Temporary Housing consists of simple, compact units offering short-term rental leases. These are mainly marketed toward urban residents who were displaced by disasters or redevelopment and are awaiting new rental units, or new arrivals from rural areas who have not yet had their public housing applications approved. The majority of temporary housing buildings were converted from old public housing buildings, and tend to have the poorest living conditions, but some major cities such as Gyŏngsan and Sunju have built new temporary housing buildings to high disaster-resistant safety standards, making them more suitable shelters in the aftermath of an earthquake or typhoon.
Quality and Renewal
Simple figures on home construction, of the type presented above, can be misleading because they mask differences in the quality and type of housing units. During the 1990s, local housing programs were assessed based on how well they handled homelessness and improvised housing, but not by the quality of the housing they built. The Ten Million Homes Campaigns in 2003 and 2008 introduced some new housing standards to correct for this, but officials and developers were still assessed based on the number of units added, creating incentives to build cheap and compact apartments.
A central audit study by the National Housing Authority in 2009 estimated that 34% of public apartments built during the Ten Million Homes Campaign were in violation of the minimal standards laid out by the program, and implied the real number was almost certainly higher. An "alarming percentage" of buildings were also found to lack hot water and modern restrooms. Many were cramped dormitory-style arrangements with communal restrooms on each floor, and there were multiple reports of managers assigning co-workers to the same room and registering it as a "couple-type apartment."
In response to this news, the central government ordered an increase in the minimum floor area and room allocation of public housing facilities, and required that each public apartment building built after 2011 have a restroom in each unit. Some cities, including Donggyŏng and Insŏng, took this a step further by creating a timetable for existing non-compliant buildings to refit their facilities until compliant.
| Minimum Standards for Public Housing | B=Bedroom | K=Kitchen | D=Dining/Living | W=Bathroom |
| Household Composition | Min. Rooms (2003) | Min. Area (2003) | Min. Rooms (2011) | Min. Area (2011) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | B/K | 9 m2 | B + K + W | 12 m2 |
| Couple | B + D/K | 16 m2 | B + D + K + W | 25 m2 |
| Couple + 1 child | 2B + D/K | 26 m2 | 2B + D + K + W | 36 m2 |
| Couple + 2 children | 2B + D + K | 36 m2 | 2B + D + K + W | 42 m2 |
| Couple + 3 children | 3B + D + K + W | 40 m2 | 3B + D + K + W | 45 m2 |
| Couple + Couple's Parents + 2 Children | 3B + D + K + W | 45 m2 | 4B + D + K + W | 55 m2 |
After the end of the Second Ten Million Homes Campaign, the National Housing Authority shifted its attention toward building higher-quality public housing for established lower-middle-class residents to move into, thereby freeing up sub-standard units for demolition, renovation, or conversion into temporary housing. It also began to prioritize family units over single ones, with the goal of enticing rural migrant workers to bring in their families and become permanent urban residents.
Some high-income cities, most notably Donggyŏng and Sunju, have gained international renown for the success of their public housing systems, which used mixed-income residency, high degrees of homeownership, and Neighbors' Association enforcement to keep their properties clean, safe, and well-maintained. Nevertheless, conditions in small cities with lower government budgets and less consistent regulation are often considerably worse, and new construction projects are often guided by political interests rather than the strength of market demand.