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| Unfinished, and yet people live in buildings like this |
There's a severe housing crisis in China -- millions of people have poured their hard-earned savings into apartments, hoping they can at least live in their biggest purchase, and that their property will appreciate in time.
But now developers have run out of cash to finish the buildings and their clients, the buyers, have run out of patience.
Some have staged protests at developers' or banks' offices, or refused to pay mortgages on their "rotten-tail buildings" -- or they have moved in.
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| People that McDonnell spoke to in Xi'an |
It's a nondescript brown building with no windows, no electricity, no running water, and yet up to 200 people live there.
"We used up all our savings to buy our apartments," says one man. "It's been five years and we can't live in them. We can't bear it any longer."
He said it's been financially hard because of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it difficult to make money, and yet there are still car and mortgage payments that must be made.
"I feel helpless, I don't want to live this way, but we've no where to go," says a young man whose two young children, six and eight years old also live there.
The residents get water in giant jugs from elsewhere, and cook in a communal kitchen. Periodically they can get a bit of electricity from solar panels.
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| How will Xi solve this problem, Covid-19 related |
McDonnell wanted to ask them more, but then the police showed up and shooed him and his cameraman away.
There are so many more questions -- what do they do for toilets? Showers? How can they live with no windows and what about when winter sets in?
Apparently after McDonnell's visit, the residents were told construction would resume, but they were not convinced...
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