Hong Kong’s subdivided flats: why the people who live in them say they have no choice
- The long waiting time for public rental flats means the city’s poorest families end up in tiny, shared living spaces
- The most infamous are ‘cage homes’, where partitioned, boxlike units are stacked from floor to ceiling, separated by thin wooden boards or wire mesh
After a long night shift, security guard Leung returns to the tiny space he calls home in an old residential building in Sham Shui Po.
He has 50 sq ft in a loft space that has been subdivided into 12 units of more or less the same size, each barely enough for one person.
His space is so small that he piles boxes of personal belongings and clothes on the bed, which means he cannot stretch out fully when he sleeps. He has a sink, and a bathroom with no door, but there is no kitchen.
The windowless space is stuffy, even more so in summer. Mosquitoes keep him up on many nights, and his mattress is stained by squashed bed bugs.
“When I tell people new to the city about my living conditions, they just cannot believe it,” says Leung, 58, who asked to be identified only by his surname.
