Rural-urban inequality including migrant’s problems has reached the top levels of the Chinese leadership. But many migrant workers are still excluded from public services such as housing, health insurance, and education for their children. On the urban fringe, lack of land use planning and the absence of the right to develop the land, local peasants can only build illegal inferior-quality apartments for migrant workers. But recently this kind of urban sprawl “villages within cities” in metropolitan outskirts is being redeveloped. And commercial apartments for migrant workers are demolished.

There is little formal housing policy for migrant workers. State Council requires local governments to improve migrant workers’ living conditions by various channels. The enterprise and local government also think that such dormitories and housing complexes for migrant workers are advantageous for manpower securing. Developing migrant housing complexes for both single and family migrant workers should be expanded. And new low-rent housing system for migrant workers should be made. The aim of this paper is to analyze affordable housing for rural migrant workers from the viewpoint of social policy and housing well-being.