Ministry to add 30,000 beds in homeless shelters

By Tom Qian  |   2008-11-25  |     ONLINE EDITION

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THE Ministry of Civil Affairs plans to add 30,000 beds in shelters across the country by 2010 to help about 1.5 million homeless people, China Youth Daily reported today.

In announcing the first such standard of its kind, the ministry said 200 to 300 beds in homeless shelters should be provided for an area with a floating population of 1.5 million to 2.2 million, according to the report.

The standard will be put into practice on December 1.

There are only about 5,000 beds in shelters nationwide that provide basic boarding service for up to 16 days for 114,000 homeless people annually, far below demand.

The central government will allocate 700 million yuan (US$102 million) and local governments will inject 420 million yuan into the project.

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