Hong Kong Poor Live in Cages

Sad News, ATS.

According to ABC News, some of the poorest people in Hong Kong call a metal cage home.

For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage. The 67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood. The cages, stacked on top of each other, measure 1.5 square meters (16 square feet). To keep bedbugs away, Leung and his roommates put thin pads, bamboo mats, even old linoleum on their cages' wooden planks instead of mattresses.

The article contends that more than 100,000 people live in this type of housing, or similarly cramped living conditions. Apparently, the sky-rocketing demand for housing is driving this problem for the regions' poorest citizens.

Personally, I think I'd rather sleep in the open. But I suppose there may not be many "open" places left in Hong Kong.

The reason I posted such a depressing article is to remind myself (and others) that, no matter how bad we might think we have things....there's always someone who has it worse.

reply to post by smyleegrl


That is very sad indeed, especially considering that there is an abundance of empty housing developments in China that could be put to good use.
Chinas Ghost Town BBC News

This makes me sad and angry at the same time.

Oh and there is a typo in the title of your thread

Thanks for posting this story today, it made me feel very lucky to have what I have.

reply to post by Shakunetsu


Thanks for the tip about the typo! Damn autocorrect!

reply to post by smyleegrl



Very heart rendering indeed.

Sadly since the British transferred the sovereignty back to Chinese way back in 1997 things are getting worse for those who live there. There were still poor people in Hong Kong before the transfer but not in comparison as to the way things are now!

I'm not one to go on about colonialism and whatnot, but in a way they were a lot better off before methinks?

Kindest respects

reply to post by smyleegrl
It is so sad that anyone has to live like that! I think rather than live in a cage I would have to find a wooded area and build a shelter out of sticks and scraps rather than live in a cage. Even a cardboard box would be preferable! I will be giving extra thanks today for my big old falling apart "shack".

reply to post by Shakunetsu


Yeah you can see some in Hong Kong here:

kamsdesign.wordpress.com...

Tons of space and shelter...

Nice avatar btw...

It is really bad to see...
At least they could try and make them like the capsule hotels in Japan.
en.wikipedia.org...

take notes,and take them well.cause thats were we are heading to in usa.if agenda 21 gets its way. they want to confine people into a region and leave the rest alone. so unless they reduce population as planned,we will need them cages.lol.

Wow, that is so sad.
Thanks for posting this, you are right, it makes everything else not so bad.
Have a beautiful day.

This is one of the most fundamental problems with our city, as well as the one that gets the most attention.

Over the past few years, HKers have been speaking of the 'hegemony of the property industry'. Hong Kong's property prices have been soaring since the handover. Moreover, dishonest business practices of the property industry (such as claiming a flat to be on the - if I remember correctly - fifth floor when it's actually on the ground floor) have exacerbated the widespread discontent of the property developers. It is even claimed that Li Ka Shing has the right to decide whether to hoist a typhoon signal.

Although fewer and fewer people can afford to rent private housing, the quantity supplied of public housing is insufficient to satisfy the needs of HKers. The poorest are forced to live in cage homes, subdivided units, cubicle flats, and other forms of housing that are less than desirable. These homes are often illegal, but their inhabitants have no other choice. The problem is so serious that Secretary for Development Paul Chan has been accused of dealing subdivided units last year (which was quickly followed by another accusation of drink-driving).

The current Chief Executive, CY Leung, vowed to ease Hong Kong's housing problems before he became Chief Executive, but many of his promises have been broken.

Thanks for bringing the issue to the attention of ATSers.

The EU orchestrated protests in Hong Kong will not yield a single result !

Criminal MI6 subverters and criminal UK businessmen operating in west-backed Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be deported and executed in mainland China as expected. Repression of demonstration by UK-intelligence criminals will executed when appropriate with extremely advanced methods, and with the effectiveness of a magnificent Dragon !

EU expectation of success are doomed from day one. The repression of this one will be more exemplary than the west-orchestrated protests of 1989 ... without any doubt !

France DGSE, UK's MI6 , Germnay's BND and Italy's AISE are behind the ongoing unrest and agitation of criminal British and EU oligarchs