Poverty-stricken villagers find new hope in new homes

Top: Cao Yongzhen and her family in front of their old house. Bottom: Cao Yongzhen at her new home in Hongxing residential community, Chengmagang township, Macheng city, Central China’s Hubei province, May 25, 2017. Cao, 44, has a family of six and previously lived with her parents-in-law in a 100-square-meter house. With a government subsidy of 7,500 yuan ($1,098), a 400-square-meter new four-storey home was built in June 2016 and they moved in in January 2017. Her village is a key poverty-stricken area. Since the adoption of targeted poverty-alleviation policy in the second half of 2015, 25 families have renovated their old houses or got finance to build new ones. Another 29 families have been moved to the resettlement sites built by the government. [Photo by Wu Yan/chinadaily.com.cn]