For HK$55 a night, Hong Kong’s ‘invisible homeless’ or working poor turn to cybercafes, amid unaffordable rents and with nowhere to go
- Air conditioning and desktops for internet are better options than squalid, bug-infested subdivided flats or 24-hour fast-food chains
- Social workers urge government to adopt a more centralised policy in tackling the problem and providing social housing
For the past seven years, dimly lit internet cafes in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong’s poorest district, were homes to 50-year-old Hung (not his real name).
He spent every evening browsing the web at such establishments for movies and songs of the 80s, before hunkering down for the night. “These songs and films remind me of the better days of my youth. Without them, I’ve got nothing but painful memories,” he says.
As a young man in his 20s, Hung developed a gambling problem. At the time, he had lost his job as a bartender at a small karaoke club which closed down amid tough competition from rising chains.
Turning to Macau casinos to relieve stress, Hung rang up some HK$400,000 in debt. Although his family stepped in to help pay off the loans, his addiction and shame weighed heavily on him.
At 28, he left his mother and two elder siblings to start a life that would see him tough it out on bare streets to the city’s horrendously squalid subdivided flats, and finally, cybercafes. A month ago, he moved into a new hostel in Tai Kok Tsui, run by the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), an NGO.
