German photographer Michael Wolf showed us outside views of Hong Kong’s crowded residential apartments. Now Hong Kong based advocacy organization - Society for Community Organization – shows us how the insides look. This set of pictures depict the deplorable living conditions of one of the most densely populated cities on earth, from the only vantage point that captures the entire room.
According to the SoCO, over 100,000 people are unable to afford adequate homes. Among them are elderly individuals and other socially vulnerable groups who have no choice but to live in these tiny 40-square-foot rooms. While the city seems prosperous, many people still live in unacceptable conditions. Residents go about their lives in these confined spaces, sleeping on one corner, eating in another, storing their belongings in a third, and perhaps watching a TV that’s found in a fourth.
“By taking these photos of inadequate housing we want to arouse public and government concern over the issue”, says Ho Hei-Wah, Director of SoCO. “These people have to afford an expensive rent rate; it equals to approximately £6-7.50 per square foot per month and sometimes have to wait years for public rental housing because there are so few in Hong Kong.”
“Hong Kong is regarded as one of the richest cities in the world; however, lurking beneath this prosperity is also extreme poverty. Hundreds of thousands of people still live in caged homes and wood-partitioned cubicles, while the unemployed, new-arrived families from China and children in poverty struggle for survival,” added Ho Hei-Wah.
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