Hong Kong Cage Homes

Elderly resident sitting in their cage http://www.csr-asia.com/upload/cage2.jpg (Creative Commons)

In a series of massive, Brutalist high-rises, thousands of Hong Kong’s poorest residents call wire cages home.

Packed 20 cages to a room, and often stacked three high, the wire cubicles barely offer enough room to sleep. On average, they are six-feet-long by two-and-a-half-feet-wide, providing little privacy from the other 19 people in the space. Conditions in these cage dormitories are utterly squalid, with a single shared bathroom and no kitchen facility.

As Hong Kong’s density grew, these types of arrangements have become more common. Some estimate that 100,000 people living in the wealthy city sleep night after night stacked in wire cages. Despite the awful conditions of the rooms, landlords charge an average of $200 per month to rent out a single cage, leaving the already abject poor with even less.