Urban poverty is a global phenomenon, even in advanced economies, it is a problem that haunts the economic and social development.
For instance, Hong Kong is a developed economy with a per capita GDP of about US$ 46,000, but there are more than 1 million poor people in the population of more than 7 million. According to Hong Kong's Hong Kong Economic Journal, the number of poor people in Hong Kong reached 1.377 million in 2017, a record high in the past nine years, equivalent to an average of one poor per five. However, after the various subsidies provided by the Hong Kong government, the poor population still maintains a million-scale, reflecting that the method of using only monetary assistance does not solve the problem. The Hong Kong Economic Journal believes that Hong Kong's poverty is divided into two types; the first type is those who lack job skills, of they are low-skilled labors; their absolute income is meager. Those who are above the poverty line, have low monthly incomes, and can only have barely enough daily sustenance after paying heavy rents, are the second type of poverty. According to the analysis of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the second type of poverty is obviously different from the first type, as it has characteristics, which can be easily ignored by the policies and falls below the poverty line, making urban poverty problems unable to be eliminated in the long-term. Such an issue deserves more attention.
Urban poverty problems also exist in cities in Mainland China; the seriousness of such issue is evident from the number of urban "low-income" people. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China, the "low-income" population in China reached 20.047 million in 2002 and remained above 20 million in 2013. The "low-income" group is only part of the urban poor. Some scholars estimate that by 2014, the number of urban poor people in China would reach more than 60 million.
It is worth noting that with the expansion of urbanization, the second type of poverty of Mainland Chinese cities has become rather serious. These potential hidden poor groups are a hidden danger in the efforts of eliminating and reducing urban poverty. In recent years, with the migrant workers working in cities and college graduates entering the city seeking for employment, families or individuals of "expenditure-type poverty" have appeared in large numbers. Although they have fixed job and their income is above the poverty line, and some are even within urban middle-class income of the city, because of the large number of rigid expenditure needs (housing, medical, children's school expenses, etc.), the current consumption has to be pushed below the poverty line. Urban residents have to pay for living, eating, traveling, and so on, especially in the current high urban housing cost, this is a heavy burden even for the middle class with a decent occupation. Hard expenditures also cause such urban residents unable to make ends meet. Once there is a change in income or expenditure, it is easy to fall into poverty. Some people say that "it only takes a sickness for the urban middle-class to become poor". This means whenever there is an incident like a family member has major illnesses, children attending school or if there are sudden incidents, it will hit the family hard ". According to the statistics of the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, low- and middle-income families, which account for 30% of the urban population, have the problem of excessive expenditures and facing the threat of the second type of poverty.
China's current poverty alleviation work still focuses on achieving the goal of rural poverty alleviation by 2020. The focus is on rural poverty alleviation with "rural revitalization" and "precise poverty alleviation", while attention to urban poverty is still insufficient. In fact, compared with rural poverty alleviation, urban poverty alleviation work is equally complicated and difficult, but the policy attention is not as high as rural poverty alleviation. With the increasing level of China's economic development and urbanization, the urban population is increasing. When the "poverty alleviation" is gradually ending and the rural absolute poverty is gradually eliminated, the focus of poverty alleviation needs to shift to the work of eliminating urban poverty.
From the experience and lessons of Hong Kong, urban poverty alleviation not only needs to solve absolute poverty, but it needs to solve the second type of poverty as well. This requires not only the traditional poverty alleviation work methods such as aid to resolve difficulties and encourage employment but also the construction of a comprehensive social security system. It also needs to solve the problems of urban medical treatment, schooling, old-age care, and housing for low- and middle-income groups, thereby reducing the "hard cost" of living expenses to tackle the imbalance in the socio-economic structure of the urban economy.
Final analysis conclusion:
Similar to Hong Kong, there is a relatively prominent second type of poverty problem in the process of urbanization in Mainland China. It is necessary for China to pay attention to poverty alleviation work in urban areas; this is not only related to the progress of the poverty alleviation plan, which is mainly implemented in Mainland China but also related to the structural reform of urban economic and socially sustainable development.
