Skyrocketing rental prices in Hong Kong has forced thousands to live in in 'coffin homes' measuring just 1.9 square metres in size.
According to the Associated Press, 200,000 of Hong Kong’s 7.3 million residents leave in the “subdivided units” which can comprise of one 120 ft room.
“I dread going home, but I still need a place to sleep. The most difficult thing about living here, is not being able to breathe in fresh air. It’s suffocating,” a resident of the 'coffin home' told SCMP.
According to a Bloomberg report, Hong Kong, has been ranked the world’s least affordable housing market for seven years by the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. These housing facilities have been condemned by the UN as 'an insult to human dignity'.
“It takes time to build apartments. We’ve seen that the government has tried to implement long-term policies. But they’re lacking in medium and short-term policies. For example, transitional housing, rent subsidies, rent contrl."social worker and community organiser at the Society for Community Organization (SoCO), Sze Lai Shan told Reuters
"We think they’re not doing much in those aspects, and they need to do more. Because even though building housing, the problem is it still takes a long time. So we are in a way disappointed,” he added.
Tens of thousands of people continue to live these cramped conditions because they can’t afford anything else.
Take a look at the pictures below:
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