Abstract: In recent years,the redistribution of housing land and the rebuilding of rural houses are important contents of rural social governance in China.Field investigation shows that the practice of relevant social policies at the grassroots level has double consequences: improving the rural living environments and promoting the integration of urban and rural areas on the one hand,and on the other hand,the elderly are forced to leave their homes and families,entering the apartments for the elderly or the nursing homes of different types and levels.However,the nursing homes of different types and levels provide different conditions for the reconstruction of “home” for the elderly,and the more complete the hardware facilities of the nursing homes,the more far away from the expectation of the elderly to “go home”.This kind of experience of the rural elderly leads to the topic of the relationships between family and social governance.The role of family in social governance can be roughly divided into four kinds: source of values,methods,objects and subjects.Social governance should care for family values as much as possible,respect the dominant position of family in governance,avoid the differentiated use of family values and family subjects,and prevent the division of family metaphor in governance philosophy and family as a tool in governance practice.