infonetorg: Hong Kong's Cramped Quarters

With more than 200,000 people in Hong Kong currently on waiting lists for subsidized public housing, droves have downsized or moved into factory buildings, sub-divided "slaughtered" flats that can accommodate multiple families, or moved into "cage homes", wire-mesh hutches stacked on top of each other in crowded rooms.

Michelle Wong, a single mother, plays with her two-year-old daughter in the bedroom of an 80 square-foot (8 square metre) sub-divided flat, which she rents for HK$3,000 ($387) per month at Sham Shui Po, one of the oldest districts in Hong Kong, February 4, 2013. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Lee Oi Lin, a 56-year-old woman, sits on a bed as she poses for photos in her 45-square-feet (4.1-square-metre) subdivided flat inside an industrial building in Hong Kong January 19, 2012. Lee pays a monthly rent of HK$1,500 ($193) for the flat. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Li Rong, a 37-year-old woman, sits on a bed as she poses for photos in her 35 square feet (3.2 square metre) subdivided flat inside an industrial building in Hong Kong November 1, 2012. In a cramped space on the fifth floor of an old industrial building in Hong Kong, Li lives in some of the priciest real estate per square foot in the world - a 35 sq ft room with a bunk bed and small TV. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

King, 18, who works as a bartender smokes his cigarette in a wooden box he uses as living space in Hong Kong October 9, 2012. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

People sit in a common area between wooden boxes they use for living in Hong Kong October 9, 2012. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Kam Chung, 49, wears a brace as he rest in a wooden box that he lives in Hong Kong October 9, 2012. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

A woman sits inside her "cubicle" home, one of the 19 24-square feet units inside a 600 square foot residential apartment complex in Hong Kong September 16, 2009. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

People rest at a "Home for Love", a charity-run accommodation for former streets sleepers and the unemployed that became fully occupied after the financial crisis, in Hong Kong March 17, 2009. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

People rest at one of about 100 cage homes in Hong Kong March 20, 2009. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Wong Chun-sing, 91, poses inside his "cubicle" home, one of the 19 24-square feet units inside a 600 square foot residential apartment complex in Hong Kong September 16, 2009. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Yan Chi-keung sleeps in a small cage in Hong Kong's Tai Kok Tsui district July 16, 2008. In older districts like Tai Kok Tsui, hundreds of elderly men still reside in caged cubicles in cramped, old tenement flats which house up to 12 individuals in often squalid conditions. REUTERS/Victor Fraile

A general view of old residential flats, which contain sub-divided units, at Sham Shui Po, one of the oldest districts in Hong Kong February 4, 2013. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

77-year-old Yeung Ying Biu sits partially inside the cage, measuring 1.5 square meters (16 square feet), which he calls home, in Hong Kong on Jan. 25, 2013. For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, home is a metal cage. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

77-year-old Yeung Ying Biu eats next to the cage, measuring 1.5 square meters (16 square feet), he calls home, in Hong Kong on Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

62-year-old Cheng Man Wai lays in his cage, measuring 1.5 square meters (16 square feet), which he calls home, in Hong Kong on Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

In this Jan. 25, 2013 photo, 63-year-old Lee Tat-fong, walks in a corridor while her two grandchildren Amy, 9, and Steven, 13 sit in their 50-square-foot room in Hong Kong. Lee, like many poor residents, has applied for public housing but faces years of waiting. Nearly three-quarters of 500 low-income families questioned by Oxfam Hong Kong in a recent survey had been on the list for more than 4 years without being offered a flat. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

A man stands next to a subdivided flat inside an industrial building in Hong Kong November 1, 2012. In October, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying singled out the re-emergence of cage homes - wire mesh hutches stacked on top of each other - and cubicle apartments as issues that highlighted the gravity of poverty that existed alongside one of Asia's glittering financial centres. More than 1.1 million people, or 17 percent of Hong Kong's population, lived below the poverty line in 2011, earning less than HK$3,500 ($450) per month, according to the Hong Kong Council of Social Services. It defined poverty as earning less than half of the average monthly income. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu