In the memoir of Taiwanese author Chiung Yao, she said because her father was an intellectual and easily found another professor job, her family received a Japanese style house the size of twenty "tatami" from the university. Her family was still extremely poor despite being better off than most refugees.

Another Taiwanese author named Liu Hsia wrote in her memoir that a family of fellow refugees could barely survive on the father's army pension with five kids. The author's father wanted to help them out so he resorted to forging a letter of recommendation and found a nurse position for the mother.

The less fortunate ones with fewer resources and connection would live in what they call "Military dependents' Village" consists of very poorly built houses similar to slums. They were originally intended to be temporary housing built with organic materials, but eventually the buildings were replaced with more permanent structures. In recent years those communities were demolished and replaced by low cost high rise apartment buildings.