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Subscribe to RSSIt's heartbreaking when anyone has to live in such conditions, and even more so when these conditions are considered desirable compared to the alternative of homelessness, but these situations really get to me when the elderly or children are impacted.
Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images
Leung Shu, 78, prepares to settle in for the evening beside his cage on the apartment floor which he now only shares with 4 other people on Nov. 27, in Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong's property prices having soared over the past year with urban redevelopment shrinking the supply of older, cheaper blocks. Thousands of men still dwelling in 15-square-foot cubicles or cages are being forced to vacate the premises as the properties are being sold to developers and low cost accommodation becomes more difficult to find due to increasing cost of rent. Approximately 1,000 or so men are still estimated to live in squalid and cramped conditions in old tenement flats as Hong Kong's yawning wealth gap widens. Leung Shu, suffering from chronic asthma, has been forced to cease his rental of monthly medical equipment due to rising living costs.
Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images
Tam Wing Dik, 78, looks out of his cage dwelling on Nov. 27, in Hong Kong, China. Tam Wing Dik, suffering from mental illness, has been given 1 month along with his fellow residents to evacuate the building, which has been sold to developers. Mr Tam says he has no idea of where he will end up.
Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images
Clothes and valuables are seen on a cage dwelling on Nov. 27, in Hong Kong, China.
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Really is this any different than what we see everyday in North America. Homeless women and men living on heating grates in the winter or living by the river banks with just a sleeping bag and tarp to keep warm. I think we need to follow New york states model and find affordable housing for all the homeless men and women. Our city is trying to do just that, but of course it is going to take ten years before we can accomplish this. We are now three years into it and our downtown core has notices a large change in the homeless population getting help. Calgary Alberta
These are not homeless people in Hong Kong. These cages are their "home". The are homeless people in Hong Kong that doesn't even have a cage to sleep in. And MSNBC didn't tell you how much these people are paying for rent for these cages. It ain't cheap either. And it costs money going to public clinic and hospitals too, and you have to pay for medicine as well. One nice thing about HK. Cheap food is really cheap.
Very sad for so many people in the world.......perhaps if we give tax breaks to the wealthiest people that have ever lived on this planet things will cange for the impoverished? ........Perhaps if they can pass all their wealth onto their children(untaxed) than that will help the homeless.......How many of you realize that you are just one illness or one accident or one false arrest or one loss of a job or one mental breakdown or one false accusation or one string of bad luck etc.......away from living on the street.
China needs to stop watching how the U.S. treats its elderly. The U.S. doesn't care about senior citizens anymore. We can tax even triple tax cigarettes and beer, and where does all that money go..???? Tax toilet paper, even the "BAPTISTS" use it. It used to be we cared about our seniors, thats all in past tenths. People have forgotten that if it wasn't for us seniors, they wouldn't be here today. With this said I will go back inside my tent that my nephew bought me 2yrs. ago..! Thanks Daryl. :-)>
The guys shown in the pictures were the lucky ones. They can see the sky through some windows, and the corridor next to their cage is a few feet wide. The unlucky ones would not be able to see a window, much less seeing the sky out of a window, and the corridor is just two feet wide.