In Wealthy Hong Kong, The Poor Are Living In Wire Cages

Thousands of poor people in Hong Kong are living in tiny, wire cage homes — and they're actually paying quite dearly for the privilege.

Hong Kong is one of the wealthiest cities in Asia, yet you’ll find hundreds of thousands of people living in what the government calls “inadequate housing” — which for some means tiny wire cages.

An extended housing crisis has put the possibility of purchasing a home out of the reach of many — and has made the cage home a reality for Hong Kong’s poorest. Incredibly, the 16-square-foot cages rent for around $170-$190 USD, which if calculated by cost per square foot makes them more expensive than the most posh apartments in Hong Kong.

Building after building, floor after floor – rooms with up to 30 cages each populate the poorest areas of the city. The United Nations calls the squalid conditions of cage homes “an insult to human dignity,” and as these photos show, it’s easy to see why:

Cage homes were initially constructed for single men coming over from mainland China in the 1950s. As poverty rose and housing supply fell, the demand for cage homes grew.Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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As the average time on the waiting list for government public housing is five-seven years, some have resigned themselves to living in cages over the long-term. MN Chan/Getty Images

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The common area of a cage room is often used to wash clothes in a shared bucket. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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The outside of a building that is filled with stacked cage homes. MN Chan/Getty Images

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A man watches a television in a commons area corridor. MN Chan/Getty Images

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The restroom consists of two toilet stalls and a squat toilet that also catches water from showers. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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78-year-old Leung Shu prepares to settle in for the evening beside his cage. He shares this apartment floor with four other people. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Leung and his "roommates" try to use bamboo mats or old linoleum instead of mattresses to prevent bedbugs, but it's a losing battle. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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“I’ve been bitten so much I’m used to it,” said Leung, rolling up the sleeve of his oversized blue fleece jacket to reveal a red mark on his hand. “There’s nothing you can do about it. I’ve got to live here. I’ve got to survive.” Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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“It took me a while before wrapping my head around the fact that this is how it is and it will be. So I might as well choose the best out of the worse,” says one man. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Leung sits on his bed as he uses a ventilator to ease his chronic asthma. Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Tam, 70, sits in his shared hallway. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

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Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

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Simon Go/AFP/Getty Images

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One step up from a cage home is cubicle. Cubicles are apartment buildings divided into numerous, very tiny areas — about 50 square feet each. Here a boy plays a computer game as he sits on his bed in a cubicle in Hong Kong. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

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Lau sits in the small room she shares with two other family members. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

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Below, watch this Channel News Asia profile of 54-year-old Yeung Suen, whose home is barely bigger than his bed:

For more on living conditions across the globe, check out our articles on pollution in China and life inside Manila, the most crowded city on Earth.