Kunming - Seven elderly people from Kunming, capital city of South China's Yunnan province, have been living in a hospital for almost two years, not for treatment, but for shelter, after their houses were demolished by the local government.

Sun Yulan, 86, is one of the seven "patients", all of whom are older than 58. She told China Daily on Tuesday she had been living in a ward with two other elderly women since September 2008, when nine houses in her neighborhood in Panlong district were declared "illegal construction" and demolished by the local government.

The ward, which measures 10 square meters, was filled with the women's belongings, a testament of the poor and desolate lives they previously led.

Following disagreements with the local government, nine elderly women were initially sent to the hospital by Panlong district government in 2008 after the forced demolition of their homes, located near the city's railway station, for a construction project.

Cui Muxue, Sun's son, said they were informed on Sept 25, 2008 that their homes were "illegal construction" and needed to be demolished.

"The police came to our house and pulled us out. They wanted to demolish our house. Along with our neighbors, we fought with the police and some of us were beaten. My mother and some other old people were then sent to the hospital," Cui said.

In addition to paying each woman 100 yuan ($14.60) a month in living expenses, the government had paid the hospital to shelter them until last July.

"They also gave three of us, who are older than 80, big coats for winter, but they stopped paying the hospital last year and two people moved out," Sun said.

Liu Shuizhen, 63, who shares the ward with Sun, said she was severely hurt after being beaten by the police.

"I'm not the worst of us," she said. "I have 800 yuan of retirement pay each month. The one living in the next ward, with her daughter, now survives by collecting trash. How sad."

Hong Yan, deputy head of the hospital, said when the government stopped paying for the women's shelter last year, the hospital tried to persuade the remaining seven women to leave, but they did not want to go because they had nowhere to turn.

"They are so old and poor. We cannot be too harsh", Hong said.

Their sons and daughters are all migrant workers in other cities and they manage to visit occasionally, he added.

According to Cui, none of the nine families would agree to the compensation offered by the government for their houses in 2008, which was 800 yuan per square meter.

"Besides, we all had large courtyards, but the government told us they only count the built-up area."

However, an official from the administrative office of the district where the nine houses were located said their houses had been defined as a "shanty area", making it necessary to demolish to improve the city's appearance.

"We spent 480,000 yuan in total on the nine families, which, morally, is all we could have done," said the official, who declined to be named.

The nine families have yet to receive any compensation for their former homes.

"We are not leaving. We'll just live day by day," Sun said.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/09/2010 page5)