But not for Zhou Xinxin and her family.

Zhou moved into Room 6, No. 40 in 1953 together with her husband, who passed away at work in the late 1970s. At that time, they thought of it as a symbol of care from the municipal government. It was also an honour to move into the household, as most residents were model workers. All together, 10 families shared the the two-storied house.

In her leisure time, Zhou Xinxin likes to play mah-jong with some of her old neighbours. As the children grew up and grandchildren were born, it became more and more crowded for Zhou's family to live in the room, which is no bigger than 30 square metres.

The tiny room has been divided into three parts with boards, two for Zhou's two sons and their families and the bed-standing-only section for eighty-one-year-old Zhou. Zhou's great-grandson, Zhu Duanxing, 17, who is now 1.8 metres tall, has to sleep on the floor at night.

Lay-offs

Zhou and her family could not afford to buy a new apartment. Zhou's elder son Zhu Jinfang and daughter-in-law Hu Huiqin are both laid-off workers living on a 180 yuan (US$22) per month subsidy.

Zhou's younger son, Zhu Guofang, has been out of work for a long time. He has also been unlucky in marriage. He married a migrant worker with no Shanghai residency when he was in his 40s, and now his son, 3-year-old Zhu Jiayi, is unable to register in school and may be refused admission to a local school due to his ambiguous status.

Now, nine families in the building have moved out. Buildings to the left, to the right and behind have all been torn down. They are still waiting.

Under new regulations issued last November, the compensatory money given to residents is calculated according to the area where they lived before been asked to move, not the number of people as it was previously.

This was confirmed by Zhang Yunzai, executive manager of Qiaosheng Corp, a real estate corporation in charge of the moving process.

Benefits

The formula is as follows:

Lowest Price (LP) for each square metre, determined by government assessment, is multiplied by 80 per cent - the discounting is due to the fact that these are State-owned buildings. Then the LP is multiplied by 35 per cent and the total is considered the compensatory price. These two figures are added to a final value determined by the construction area to compensate the residents who must move.

All families living in the same area will get the same amount of money, regardless of the size of the family.

The real estate corporation agrees with the new policy, as in their opinion, it brings justice and reduces cheating.

Shen Cuiying, chairwoman of the residential area committee, sees benefits for residents, especially families in poor circumstances. She said among the 1,809 families who used to live in that area, about 1,400 have moved, mostly smaller sized families.

The remaining families, around 400, are mainly larger sized families that have trouble to buy new apartments.

For Zhou's family, waiting with the remaining families is their only choice.

Medical care

In 1994, they were exhilarated to hear the news of moving. If the project had been started at that time, they would have been paid enough compensation to buy a new apartment, under the previous policy.

It was not until this March that the project was restarted, virtually four months after the new policy was issued. The moving is supposed to be finished before July 24. With the deadline drawing near, they have to move. But where will they move?

According to Zhou's elder son, Zhu Jinfang, they have been advised to move into the apartment in Zhangjiang of Pudong, provided by the real estate corporation, as a few families who could not afford apartments in Puxi have done.

But Zhou's family would meet greater difficulties if they moved there. The greatest one is accessibility to medical care for the ageing Zhou, which is a problem in the area where they are supposed to move.

Besides, it would be difficult for Zhou's sons and daughters-in-law to find temporary jobs in that area.

For months, chairwoman Shen Cuiying has been trying to bring attention to the problem of low-income families in that residential area. She reported their problems to the Yangpu District Government several times. Shen said she fully understood that the government is doing the right thing, abiding by the policy.

On the other hand, it is hard for her to see those model workers who made great contributions to the development of the nation having such difficult times.

Shen is still waiting for a satisfactory solution.

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