11 crazy photos of micro-apartments around Hong Kong
The shortage has led to young people, the elderly, and families sometimes living in squalid conditions where they pay hundreds of dollars per month for less than 100 square feet of living space.
Shocking Photos of Cramped Hong Kong Apartments
American cities recently have proposed 300-square-foot or smaller “micro” apartments, but 40 square feet already is the norm for some of the poorest residents in Hong Kong.
The Society for Community Organization (SoCO) has released these overhead photos showing how people live in tiny, cramped Hong Kong apartments to highlight the ongoing housing problems in one of the richest cities in the world. Most of the residents in these urban slums are low-income families, elderly and unemployed. The smallest apartment the SoCO visited was 28 square feet, rented by an unemployed single man.
A family eats a meal together in their small apartment in Hong Kong. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
An elderly person sits in her home in the urban slums of Hong Kong. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
Children do homework while their parents go about their daily routine in their family apartment the urban slums of Hong Kong. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
An elderly person prepares a meal in her apartment in the urban slums of Hong Kong. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
A single man with a low income sleeps in his apartment in the urban slums of Hong Kong. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
An unemployed man eats his dinner. His apartment is 28 square feet. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
A man does chores in his apartment. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
An elderly man living in his home in the urban slums of Hong Kong. (Benny Lam/SoCO/Rex USA)
11 crazy photos of micro-apartments around Hong Kong
Email icon An envelope. It indicates the ability to send an email.
Twitter icon A stylized bird with an open mouth, tweeting.Twitter LinkedIn icon The word “in”.
LinkedIn Fliboard icon A stylized letter F.
Flipboard Facebook Icon The letter F.
Facebook Email icon An envelope. It indicates the ability to send an email.
Email Link icon An image of a chain link. It symobilizes a website link url.
Just over a year ago, Hong Kong politician and then-chief executive Leung Chun-ying made a dire announcement about his territory’s lack of affordable housing, calling it “the gravest potential hazard” to society.
Roughly 7% of land in Hong Kong is zoned for housing, most of it going to wealthier families. (For perspective, 75% of New York City is zoned for housing.)
The shortage has led to young people, the elderly, and families sometimes living in squalid conditions where they pay hundreds of dollars per month for less than 100 square feet of living space.
Here’s what the crisis looks like up close.
]]>