The grim reality of life in Hong Kong’s ‘coffin homes’ | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

For all the prosperity and progress that Hong Kong can boast of its history, it is bogged down by a seemingly insurmountable problem: the chronic shortage of affordable housing beneath the gleaming façade of one of the world's most prosperous cities cannot be ignored. overlook the miserable living conditions. of the underprivileged with more than 210,000 people crammed into small subdivided apartments, if there is a bright light in these dark surroundings, it may well be CI Shan wa hi, a tireless activist for the downtrodden who has spent more than 20 years helping them achieve a roof over their heads or trying to alleviate their suffering in the narrow confines of what they call home, so once we have the best party and they don't feel so helpless or can have more hope, this is my mission, she gives them voice to those who have none while living in desperate conditions China's top official responsible for Hong Kong Affairs has given the local government a clear deadline to rid the city of such unacceptable housing by 2049, but it may be easier said than done I don't believe my governor, let's go for four, in this episode of the conversation

post

, we leave the comfort of a comparatively spacious studio to visit some of this city's famous

coffin

houses to give you a taste of What

life

is like for the less fortunate.

Among Us, Hong Kong's underbelly of sub-standard subdivided housing for the poor and disadvantaged is a tidy story that has been told over and over again for decades because it is nothing new: those who can afford better housing and live With more comfort they may well be numb to the plight of the less fortunate among us, but it is only when you see it for yourself up close and personal that you get a sense of how unacceptable the situation is in such a prosperous city. Take this cage home to Mok, for example. Can you tell us a little bit about what the setup is here?

How many people live? here now there are still people living here before it is fully occupied, but now the owner wants to choose it and then change it to subdivided, otherwise it will be fully occupied or even here is the PES of people, so now there are about four five people, it depends on the situation. Yeah, when you say this is going to become a subdivided unit now, it's a little improvement in standard of living, right, uh, I think compared to what it is now, just this cage house, yeah, some other cage house, Therefore, I don't want it. a C still continue and many people live yes and now actually for this type of material um aom there are very few of this type many of them are eating the wood and they can't see the inside and because they want more hacking but the ventilation is even more poor, yes, and the rent would be more expensive, yes, so any improvement we are

talking

about is improving the standard of living, you have to take it with a pinch of salt because everything is relative, so from these appalling conditions let's have a little less scary when they update, that's how it works, yeah, or even here they said that those new designs C even the ventilation is poor than theirs.

According to the official 2021 census, the government estimates that more than 215,000 people live in 10 18,200 subdivided units. In Hong Kong, the average size of these units, which command an average monthly rent of $5,000, is just 118 square feet, or 11 square meters, even less than the average parking space in a city that boasts the largest number of metal Rolls-Royces per capita. Cage houses are not as prevalent as they were in the old days, but you can call that progress. Improved alternatives remain

coffin

houses, divided box-type units, stacked from floor to ceiling, separated by thin wooden boards or wire mesh. They come with more privacy than CAG but also at a higher price, so we're walking down this corridor now and we're seeing all of this in a little more normal times.

I don't think we can both fit together, but I want to ask you anyway, uh, obviously. Visit these places regularly and check the health and everything that was difficult during covid. You know that all our movements were restricted. Everyone was terrified. They all wore masks. Yes, it is a difficult time because when one suffers from Co and then the other. It will be easy to get infected, so there is no room to isolate. Correct isolation is for the rich even if they don't have enough mask, so we should give it to them and then support them and then even they call the government to know how to do it. relocate them to another PE, your separate PES, otherwise they will be others too in you.

Still, you made your rounds even when wearing a mask, yes, yes, yes, we even do the professional, come visit and help them. Very brave of you. I must be able to do that, I can't even imagine how you can fit into this, how do you get in there, yeah, that's how you can't get up and then you need to be banned from entering, so get up and then there 20 home here, yeah, 20

homes

, yeah, Among them is Uncle L, 70, who pays $2,400 a month for the small space he calls Home. I share two bathrooms with 19 other households behind me, you can see this is Uncle L's house.

I can't access it. inside, so I have to sit here to talk to him. There's a little bathroom right on the other side, so it's as tight as you can see, but if you look at his house, he's made a nice little place for himself, it's comfortable, it's got a little bit of air. The corn is coming up so I'm not sweating as much because there's a little bit of a breeze coming in so you know, people make both, uh, make the best of what they've got, it's pretty admirable if you think about it, man, how long have you been here 7 years 7 years yes, you live alone yes, have you ever applied for public housing anything better than this yet not yet why not uh here it is here over here a company I also live here almost 20 20 years Me love here everywhere I see, because this is your neighborhood, you want to be here where you know the people your friends are here and it's most convenient for you, so you're fine even in this small space as long as you have your network of people around you.

Yes, people like Uncle may be eligible for an affordable public rental apartment, but the prospect of spending up to 10 years on the waiting list is daunting. There are currently more than 133,000 applicants in the queue. Do you have any hope that maybe one day you will be? I offered something better. I don't believe in my government, you don't believe in the government, yes, so one of the goals of our government is to look at all these houses like yours and decide which ones are up to standard of living and which ones are below the standard. standard of living.

Below standards and standards of living. They want to get rid of him. They want to close it. Are you worried about your standard of living here? Will it be considered okay for you to continue or not? Okay, you need to get out, so essentially, Uncle Lang. He has no faith in the government, he's been there, he has a shirt and he sees no hope, which is pretty sad when you think about it, but this is his situation and this is the best that many retirees can get out of it. Those living in coffin houses survive on welfare payments from comprehensive Social Security welfare programs and government old-age subsidies and receive a monthly sum of about $5,300.

Uncle Wong is one of them. He has been living here for 8 years and pays a monthly rent of $2,800 for his Room social workers, like Cai Shan, provide additional support to such tenants, visiting them regularly to hand out food stamps and help them apply for better housing, so you can see this is a big improvement over a cage house, but it is still a small subdivided unit. and you just created a really comfortable place for him even with the little space he has, yes, but it's not very good, renovated, it sure is very dangerous because he is here, this is his bed, yes, his bed, yes, yes , anyway, they have the IND.

IND cooks the bathroom inside yes, but are you okay living alone like this? uh, this is the best thing he said. I have many illnesses. I may not have many years left to live, so he doesn't want the other four Fs when it is. h opened, you know our government officials will be watching this video. Do you have something to tell them? No, he's older. 80 is fine. People live to be 90. Hong Kong leader and chief executive John Lee has made the pursuit of affordable housing a top priority for whether his administration will be able to deliver what his predecessors couldn't will be a test of his promise. new style of leadership, but Lee has asked for patience saying that it will take a decade for the city to accumulate a surplus of housing so that we can Now we are going to a subdivided house and we will see how the families live and how the families with children are going to live, so they have 14 bed spaces and then one room, 14 bed spaces in this h, yes, there is the best space and then one.

The room is for the family to share together, wait, hello, this Mr. J, family, hello. Actually, this room is being left by a man and it is 3500, but now because one person charges 4,000 for the same space, just because more people know who is small, I think I don't have the 40 x square feet that you know for this size of flat, almost $5,000 if you look at it per square foot, it is one of the most expensive places in Hong Kong, right, yes, yes, too expensive, this is the rent receipt 4.00 4,800, so it's almost $5,000 yes yes and then you have to pay the electricity fee yes yes it will be more than 5,000 expensive for this room this is the only room I need to share with another house from house 14 with the kitchen and The bathrooms do not have a K.

The only bathroom has two bathrooms, so cooking is done inside the room. Mr. T lives with his wife and his daughter in this small room in Chims Cho. The family shares a subdivided apartment with 14 other tenants who occupy one bed each. He earns about $16,000 a month of which $5,000 goes into rent, the rest goes to his pension fund, transportation, food bills and his daughter's education, so I'm looking in this door and you have this girl here doing her homework, it's on the floor and she's on this little folding table and that's how they get educated, but of course the hope is that she gets educated and lives in much better conditions when she has a proper job, so that's upward mobility if you can be upwardly mobile when you live as if Mr.

T had been languishing in line for public housing for over 15 years, starting out as a single person and then joining the waiting list for families. He complains that the government has overcomplicated the process and wasted much of his time. Unlike in the past, the Hong Kong government is now under direct pressure from Beijing to control the city's housing problem. Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office director Shaba Long has set 2049 as the deadline for the removal of cramped and unsuitable accommodation in the city. It means that the government has around 26 years left to meet the target, so we are in the common kitchen area of ​​this subdivided apartment, it has been divided into several sections, there are several families living here and this is their communal area where there is no Lots of cooking to do, there's a little sink in there and it's very, very basic.

I have to say, after watching all this tonight, I have two main conclusions: one is the importance of raising awareness about how people in Hong Kong live like this and that is important through a social activist like your CA Shan, who Help these people and raise awareness through media like us. The other takeaway I have to say personally is for all of us who don't live like this and who live in much better conditions to simply step back and appreciate and be grateful for what we have considering there are so many others who don't have anything of this kind.

I think that's really very important to us, uh San. I have to say that I admire the work. what you've been doing, you've been doing this for many, many years. I think you are some kind of savior for these people. I notice how you give them a little food coupon when we met these families and this is very It's very important, but I want to ask you. It's a bit of a thankless job. It's hard work visiting these families to make sure they're okay. What is your motivation? What reward do you get for this? It's definitely not money.

I think For me, when I was young I studied and then I met the social and there are no small people in Hong Kong, even the rich and rich society, but we have a lot of people there even in bad conditions, so I actually want to do a job. significant and can help people so I join the field of social work because sometimes actually there are policy problems and they should be solved by the government and also the community can help so once we have the best policy and once we have more people they are willing to lend their hand and they are empowered and they don't feel so helpless or they can be more hopeful so it would make them live better and improve our society so this is my mission.

Believethat are stronger. than us because they are in really difficult situations, but they still try their best to overcome them, and even in their really difficult difficulties, we can see that we help each other and sometimes they help us, actually, because we have too much work and then we are. a helper volunteer to help others I think this is really rewarding and this is what I treasure yes, you have been doing this for so many years, there has been progress, are we doing better, are you hopeful that eventually it will ? It will be something that Hong Kong no longer has to be ashamed of because, let's face it, it is embarrassing for Hong Kong that people live like this in this city that is the richest in the world.

Look at the number of people with rolls. Royces and you know several houses and everything they have and at the same time we have this. Yes, you are right, we really shouldn't have this kind of housing in Hong Kong. In fact, I join Soo at 199 at5, so already 20 years ago AG and I think the situation, if for those living conditions, some of the pools have improvements but they're not really improvements B because we still have home care C. and people are still living in red pool conditions and also the r is increasing it's another problem so we hope there are a cage-free home placement.

No chical No Sa in Hong Kong, this is what I and I hope for. In fact, we are happy to know that the government has a plan to cause those bad conditions to affect this 26-year period that I keep

talking

to you about that Beijing has notified the government about. This answer was yes, they have established a working group they will consider doing this, but there was a warning that the government has put there and that worries me a little because it seems to be like an escape clause, like a loophole where they are. saying that first we have to decide all these subdivided houses that are considered to meet standards and that we will have to allow and those where the standard of living is so poor that they have to be closed, which means the large number of subdivided houses that we do not have . necessarily they will all be closed at the same time, so given all this and looking at the condition of this particular place, for example, we saw something much worse.

I have a feeling that something like this the government would say, well, this is not like that. bad compared to what we just saw there, so it meets the standards, so there is no need to get rid of this, but honestly, when I look at this, even if it is better than some of the other units we saw, It is still unacceptable, yes, yes. In fact, we also care about that and we should have a goal: finally there is no side effect in Hong Kong, so they will organize the race, for example, because we do not have enough housing supply, so maybe we will have the first first lot is the most private so that the cage house is to go and then the very poor, so I think they established themselves and also they should establish how many

homes

they can live in and each one in uh, for example, uh yes uh um.

Each person's living space is less than 5.5 square meters is no longer allowed in public housing, so we think they should have something to measure in their subone, yes, you know, forgive me for being a little pessimistic, but I don't have much hope that this problem will be resolved, how and when, but I do think that for people like you, the work you do is very important and the fact that you shouldn't give up hope, so I hope you keep doing it. what you are doing because it is a great service for Hong Kong so thank you and I think we too there, you know the process, we have a lot of people there, people of heart in Hong Kong, they are also very concerned and they join us to have but I think it's very important for people it's good to know that they support yeah so all the best for your work continue thank you for