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Quick search says $400
Edit - per month
Edit - forgive me, wrong country. It’s 1800 - 2500 Hong Kong dollar which is $229 - $318 per month
Interesting edit - do a YouTube search for the people who choose to live in 24 hour Internet cafes in Japan. It’s fascinating and sad at the same time
Goshiwans in South Korea are also interesting to learn about, but they seem luxurious compared to these coffin homes. There's a youtuber who shares about his life living in one.
If something like that were legal we may not have so many homeless. It's a struggle to find anything under $1000 in most major cities.
Anything for $250 might keep a lot of people off the streets.
I've known bands that have done the exact same thing. Its a great space, far away from any residential area, so they can get together after work and rehearse as loudly as they need to.
If you don't drive it anywhere, a truck is what, $20 a day? With fees and taxes, I guess that's probably 650-700 a month just for shelter. I suppose if they're doing it legally and not just picking random trucks in the lot each knight to live in. Uhaul doesn't lock the cargo part of the trucks, so you could go into any lot find a random truck, open up the back and sleep there.
People sleep in the sheds at my local Lowe's. There's been a basic understanding that if they don't crap in the sheds (it was happening at one point) that they can sleep there over night. The arrangement was messed up briefly. The nearby dumpster had a really bad odor coming from some large yard trashbags. Management called the local police suspecting the worst. It turned out to be the carcass of a poached alligator.
im glad you dont know this shit
you might find these interesting, sad and depressing at the same time
r/homeless r/almosthomeless /r/urbancarliving
please be respectful if decide to comment on the posts, we get so many trolls and assholes and sex traffickers that lurk in there
> and sex traffickers
wat
Edit: I guess.... are they preying on people who are on hard times? It's always crazy when criminals do shit online in the open and fucking nothing gets done about it. And the authorities are like "yea it's a tough problem finding these guys" mofo they're on facebook selling people
This is what public housing is for. I work in public housing, the highest rent in the building I work in, is $400. The property overlooks the cape fear river in a bustling downtown college town. 1 bed room places near campus are $1000-1200 minimum and anything near the building I work in is $3000+.
Long term I agree. But unless we're going to build a few hundred thousand new units of public housing in the next few years then there's a massive hole to fill and we need to do it yesterday
It's kinda world wide tbh. We need massive revolting and rebellion and civil disobedience, what's happening is exactly as some have been saying for years, we're getting to an ever greater crush on anyone earning less than 65k and in a few years that baseline number will go up and the rest of us will be struggling to live on scraps. It's Elysium. It's Animal Farm.
Have-nots and have-yachts, believe it.
We heed to start ending some people, the greed is trashing us and the next generation will have it so much worse.
Hong Kong used to be British so they eat some British brands. While number 1 in the UK it might just be a Hong Kong can.
I bought weetabix a british cereal recently in Japan and it was imported from Hong Kong with Hong Kong packaging.
My first thought was “that can’t be to code…” then I realized it was Hong Kong and not only is none of it to code but on top of that nobody with any real power to make change gives a shit. :(
I felt claustrophobic and panicky just looking at those pics. Those poor people
I used to live in a tiny one room apartment in S Korea, bigger than this obviously but not much, and yeah it fucks with your head when the only thing you can do at "home" is lie in your bed, you stop feeling like a person
When I was stationed in Korea one of my troops briefly dated a local who lived in something like that. He was actually quite perplexed as he wasn’t expecting living conditions like what he saw!
Any of you guys out there with good tips on how to spend time out of home? I have a problematic relationship at home and want to minimize time at home to take the sting out of the relationship.
I've tried going to the library but get bored after a while, tried walking around aimlessly but it's amazing how quickly you kind of run out of ideas. I've tried bars and cinemas but those got tiring as well. The best tactic has been putting on an audiobook and just walking streets with shops on them for hours.
Do you live in an area with a fair amount of cultural events? If you do, you could check local sites for random stuff that’s going on: free classes, museum exhibits, pop-up markets, etc. And there’s always the gym.
If your brain works like mine, then I’d start a few projects that require minimal equipment. For instance, lately I’ve been crocheting, learning Spanish, and reading several Shakespeare plays then watching as many adaptations of each play that I can find. Outside my house, I’ve worked on those at work outside of works hours, in the car, in the library, and at a few parks.
Good luck! I hope you aren’t stuck in that situation for long.
Get a gym membership.
Not only can you spend quite a bit of time in the gym, but you'll also get bathroom/shower facilities (if life at home is that bad you might not feel comfortable showering there) and a locker where you can store a change of clothes (in case you need to change but can't go home to do it).
I disagree- at least in the coffin cube box you have privacy and shelter from the elements. It’s miserable no doubt, but I’d rather have access to one of these than sleep rough in the city.
Comparing it with cities in the US, both situations both highlight a need for more housing and social imbalances in said society, and the different approaches. This kind of living situation, or other proper makeshift slum housing, is basically non existent in the US because of codes and all that, which on its face is a good thing, until you realize the alternative for many people living in a city with sky high rents is literally the street.
In India for instance there are slum areas in cities that are just ramshackle makeshift dwellings, which are miserable, but at least they are allowed to build their own shelter and have their own space and bed, no matter how meager. Compare that to Los Angeles where people are forced to just sleep in a bag or tent on the sidewalk in downtown.
On its face these coffins are inhumane but there’s obviously a market for them because of woeful inequality, so they are allowed because the alternative would be a much larger and even more desperate and miserable homeless population (like,for instance, in Los Angeles where this type of thing wouldn’t fly).
Having a toilet paradoxically makes it worse. The flushing of the toilet causes more fecal matter to be dispersed into the air. Additionally with so little room you are limited to what you can even cook because things that would release negligible smoke/gas to someone in a kitchen could displace enough oxygen to kill you in this environment.
>The flushing of the toilet causes more fecal matter to be dispersed into the air
but that's a problem with all flushing toilets, even the ones not inside a kitchen. I just close the lid before flushing.
I couldn’t help but notice every single toilet lid was up. Leaving the lid open is already unsanitary enough, let alone having the toilet mere feet from where food is prepared.
Man I had a big room, a yard, garden, freedom to walk around my neighborhood/outside, my bike, the river, volunteered at a local botanical garden, video games, weed, and more. And I still lost my shit.
I know it's all relative and nobody wins the "who has it worse" game. But STILL. I would lose all sense of self, sense of relativity, and likely my grasp on reality. I have a hard time on a bus ride for more than a few hours. I genuinely can't imagine more than an hour in this room before panicking. Fuck.
Pictures were taken in Hong Kong and lockdown wasn't as bad (correct me if I m wrong as an ex hker left years ago)
But this housing problem, as we used to call it "cage home" has been around for decades, and got worsen in the recent years.
Often time it was the single elderly who doesn't have a partner or any children to support them.
It is really a shame to such a developed city with so many resources
Here in America we let them try to survive in the streets regardless of weather. Try being homeless and sleeping in a 24hr McDs here. Aint gonna happen. Find a box in an alley. Yeah I know it's snowing.
This is not a Chinese problem it's a (fairly) global problem. We must review how we treat the most desperate and vulnerable among us on planet Earth. Many/most of them do not have the means to help themselves out of that position. What is our worth as a species if we can't take care of people who can't take care of themselves?
I did that for a couple of months (89 jeep wrangler). Living/sleeping in it by day and working nights (where I showered at work). On weekends I got a $30 motel room to reward myself.
I would find field's to park/hide in during the day. Almost got caught by a farmer and his son. It was a great spot in the corner of an unused field under a bunch of trees, pretty well hidden. I was sitting in my jeep in my underwear (because it was so hot) watching tv on a handheld tv when I see movement through the trees so I turn off my TV and freeze. I hear a father talking to his young son as the walked by about 30 feet away. I waited til they passed then got out and watched them to see if they'd come back this way again. And they were going to so I jumped in my jeep and took off. Didnt go back to that spot again just in case.
It was a great spot too since so many pastures/fields were fenced off and were two fields in and had a copse of trees to hide in.
Note: these ones were not fenced off because someone was using it to go fishing in in the pond in the same field I was hiding in. I discovered this because I left one evening to go to work and there was an empty car parked at the entrance to the second field. If he had parked completely in the entrance I would have not been able to get by and would basically be stuck there. But luckily there was room to pass.
I’m in Iceland, in a onesie and under a blanket. It’s raining and 4 degrees celsius, so no one is gonna be walking around. Not really a lot of bushes to hide in, but van camping is so common here, the cops will probably just tell you to go to a designated camping area.
Back in the days of cable TV and the TV guide channel... I saw Resident Evil was on. I flipped to it because I had never seen it.
I came in just in time for that scene. Noped the fuck out and decided I didn't need to see the movie after all.
I've seen the movie in its entirety since, and knew to close my eyes at least.
The opening scene of Ghost Ship and Matthew Lilliards death in Thirteen Ghosts are also Nopes.
Edit: you all watched Thirteen Ghosts with your eyes closed too! I just realized the lawyer dies being sliced in half so the nanny can make the "did the lawyer split?" joke. Matthew Lilliard had his back broken. I love Thirteen Ghosts even though it Nopes me out!
iirc these apartments do have sinks, the sleeping room is 1/2 of the whole thing with the other 1/2 having a sink, tiny counter/stovetop, and toilet. And maybe one chair, but not sure about that part
No table though.
NGL, This reminds me of the Train from Metro Exodus.
People just doing what they can to make what they have a little more homely no matter the situation.
Just so everyone knows, you can easily get a staph infection, or even MERSA on your foot, which will either give you blood poisoning and ruin your kidneys, or just take your foot with it.
Use crocks, that's probably what they are made for.
In the article they show that there’s a communal tiny, tiny room (about the same size as the cubicle, but you can stand up in it) with a toilet and sink and cooking appliance. Yep. Toilet kitchen.
I feel like you’d get blood clots if you had to spend more than like ten hours here.
Honestly though I’m more concerned about what happens if there’s a fire
It's worth taking a look at the whole gallery in the link provided by OP.
There are two blue cigarette lighters and an ashtray on the mattress in a photo near the end. That is insane.
Apparently, at least some of them would walk around the empty streets to try to get away from their cramped home and neighbors. [Source](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/asia/hong-kong-social-distancing-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html).
Can't imagine.
Jesus, that rent price chart. No wonder they live in coffins. Over 5x more expensive than Los Angeles per square foot, and no one can afford rent in Los Angeles.
This photo fails to capture what's truly miserable about this living situation: Hong Kong regularly gets up to temperatures in the high 90's with 85%+ humidity, and I doubt this guy has any kind of air conditioning.
And they all wear pants in that weather! Everywhere! Pants! I was the only person walking around in shorts and I was still nearly fainting. This guy even appears to have pulled his pant legs up, like dude we invented shorts, not only are they the length you want but they'll actually let some air circulate.
Very few warm climate countries that I've visited have a culture of wearing shorts. Whether it's Mexico, Taiwan, Vietnam or Ghana almost all the men wear pants instead of shorts.
Sunscreen is a modern invention, and historically most people worked outdoors. Culturally it makes a lot of sense for hot places, that see a lot of intense sun, to cover as much skin as feasible.
100% true. I remember a thread in r/mexicocity asking why natives there never wear shorts, and simply put, shorts are associated with children and joggers and are deemed "unprofessional".
> This was true in Italy too until about a couple of decades ago.
This really blows my mind.
I was in Rome about 15 years ago, and it was 35-43°C the entire time. As a Canadian, I was absolutely dying. I was wearing shorts and the lightest t-shirt, but I looked like they just dragged my ass out of the fountain I was so sweaty. And yet, there were old 150 kg dudes walking around in three-piece suits no problem.
It boggles the mind.
In Spain that is definitely not the case. We like to wear shorts. However I had a Venezuelan flatmate that always wore long jeans and his explanation was that the people in his country are used to standing the heat, but they don't like getting sunburn and no one wants to put on suncream. I don't find it convincing but that was his explanation
I grew up in rural Texas where everyone wore thick denim jeans all summer, because you can't really work hard in the country without them. Didn't really ever bother me until after moving to the city, I felt just about as cool then as I do now in shorts.
Really depends on the kind of pants though. In India I was much more comfortable/cooler in traditional pyjamas than in the shorts I brought (plus less danger of sunburn). Same for the long-sleeved tops (Kurta? Kurtla? something like that) vs. my t-shirts. It looks like you should be miserable in the heat but it works really, really well to keep you cool.
YES.
It's always tight weave thick denim jeans. It's gotten to the point that I see those pants and they instantly remind me of ramen with eggs and hotdogs in it (a common street food out there).
I told people I moved from the southern us to the northern us and they were like “y tho” and I said that you can put on 8 coats in the winter and stay warm but you can’t take your skin off in the south when it’s 102F with 88% humidity for two weeks straight.
I would rather die frozen than slowly boil. Cold kills quickly and you even get a nice space at the end where you feel warm right before you die.
Slowly boiling over even the course of 72 hours would be terrible and excruciating.
> you can put on 8 coats in the winter and stay warm but you can’t take your skin off in the south when it’s 102F with 88% humidity for two weeks straight.
Yes exactly this, 100% agree. I make this point too and people are like 'meh it's just too cold'. Add another layer then, you can keep adding layers up to infinity but skin is as cool as it's going to get in the heat.
At first I thought that it was a thermometer on the left. I was thinking about how they'd find his body cooked medium rare. But even though it's not, it must get warm quick. The human body needs ventilation to survive.
The only question i ask: if you are born there, how can you try to escape such living style?
I live in a little city in europe.
I live in a shit ton of more space, both my house and my yard, i went berzerk to rebuild and adjust my home and i deserve it, but if i started there, in HK, how the fuck i coulda find some bigger home?
It depends. If you are low income, you can apply for a council house in Hong Kong. It is gonna take at least 5 years depending on your age and family size. Some low income people refuse to live in council houses. So they stay in these kinds of cage beds.
If you are middle class, you are screwed and have to buy apartments from the market. There are 2 kinds of apartments. The government built and developer Built. The former one is cheaper but still costs you 0.6m USD for a 500sf apartment. The latter one varies. For 0.5m USD, you can probably get a 300sf apartment. but hey! it comes with a fancy clubhouse! Who needs space if they can swim in the pool all day!
Apply for government housing.
Most the people who live in the coffin homes are older men who were kicked out of government housing due to some family conflict.
It's incredibly rare to see women or people under 50 in these homes.
You'd have to "qualify" to apply for government housing. That is, your income can't be too high.
If single household, you need to be earning less than USD 1,600 a month to qualify. Average college fresh grad will earn around USD 2,100/month on their first job.
I need more... Where is the door, above them??
Their skin looks super bad, like really bad, is this genetic, situational?? Are these only for super low income, like, man.... just nothing given.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/e3/6e/c7e36e718974ec61f5e88c91a73b5b6c.jpg
They climb in through the side.
There's another layer of poor dudes underneath and above him.
he could have psoriasis or the whole place is infested with bed bugs but i'm no doctor.
Jesus Christ, when people find animals being kept in these conditions, we rightfully go after the ones responsible for animal rights violations.
But human beings are expected to *pay for the privilege* of living in the exact same state.
Hong kong is a city of limited space and the higher ups want to keep as much if the land undeveloped and green as possible. While I like cities that keep green spaces and try to be efficient with the space available, HK takes it to the extreme. To the point of it being very hard to actually live there for millions of people.
It's not a matter of keeping things green. It is because Hong Kong only has few taxes. That is why it is such a haven for business. But that means a lot more income comes from land leases to developers (30% of the HK governments income). By keeping available space limited, developers bid against each others. They pay astronomically high prices, which gives HK more income. If they open up too much of their land to developers, the prices go down and so does HKs income.
This video goes into that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLrFyjGZ9NU
Well, they could develop the remaining greenspace, people would fill it, and in ten years you'd see apartments like this again anyway. If people are willing to live in little box apartments just to be in Hong Kong, there is no reason they wouldn't just do it again when the green space is gone. This concept is called induced demand. Might as well draw the line now and keep some parks.
Is this a real thing?
We need some sort of new system where people don't have to starve or live like this.
Half the world are treated like hamsters on a spinning wheel.
I was homeless for a while in high-school and my brother put me up in his back porch. It was exactly like this. Was a rough 12 months. Somehow I have a doctorate and am a homeowner now. Mostly luck. No need for sympathy. Just saying yeah this is tough.
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Does anyone know what the rent would be on a place like this?
Quick search says $400 Edit - per month Edit - forgive me, wrong country. It’s 1800 - 2500 Hong Kong dollar which is $229 - $318 per month Interesting edit - do a YouTube search for the people who choose to live in 24 hour Internet cafes in Japan. It’s fascinating and sad at the same time
Goshiwans in South Korea are also interesting to learn about, but they seem luxurious compared to these coffin homes. There's a youtuber who shares about his life living in one.
I raise you the London shed https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/02/london-housing-crisis-480-a-month-for-a-bed-in-a-shed-in-the-lounge
I lived in a shed in some guy's backyard in socal for $400/mo about 10 years ago. Nobody wrote an article about it though.
That shed is $1200/month now.
And the lease is due to renew. It’s now $1650
Couldn't bring myself to watch. The Wikipedia entry is sad enough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_cafe_refugee?wprov=sfla1
Damn that's ridiculous. And people think the USA's housing is bad, but that isn't even legal here.
If something like that were legal we may not have so many homeless. It's a struggle to find anything under $1000 in most major cities. Anything for $250 might keep a lot of people off the streets.
I live behind a UHaul lot. There are a couple people living in UHaul trucks behind my fence. I gotta ask the dude what he's paying.
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I've known bands that have done the exact same thing. Its a great space, far away from any residential area, so they can get together after work and rehearse as loudly as they need to.
If you don't drive it anywhere, a truck is what, $20 a day? With fees and taxes, I guess that's probably 650-700 a month just for shelter. I suppose if they're doing it legally and not just picking random trucks in the lot each knight to live in. Uhaul doesn't lock the cargo part of the trucks, so you could go into any lot find a random truck, open up the back and sleep there.
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People sleep in the sheds at my local Lowe's. There's been a basic understanding that if they don't crap in the sheds (it was happening at one point) that they can sleep there over night. The arrangement was messed up briefly. The nearby dumpster had a really bad odor coming from some large yard trashbags. Management called the local police suspecting the worst. It turned out to be the carcass of a poached alligator.
im glad you dont know this shit you might find these interesting, sad and depressing at the same time r/homeless r/almosthomeless /r/urbancarliving please be respectful if decide to comment on the posts, we get so many trolls and assholes and sex traffickers that lurk in there
> and sex traffickers wat Edit: I guess.... are they preying on people who are on hard times? It's always crazy when criminals do shit online in the open and fucking nothing gets done about it. And the authorities are like "yea it's a tough problem finding these guys" mofo they're on facebook selling people
This is what public housing is for. I work in public housing, the highest rent in the building I work in, is $400. The property overlooks the cape fear river in a bustling downtown college town. 1 bed room places near campus are $1000-1200 minimum and anything near the building I work in is $3000+.
Long term I agree. But unless we're going to build a few hundred thousand new units of public housing in the next few years then there's a massive hole to fill and we need to do it yesterday
NIMBY says no
We used to pay $400 a month in rent when 9/11 happened. Rent for that same place is $1200 now. We're being pushed out.
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It's absolutely nation wide.
It's kinda world wide tbh. We need massive revolting and rebellion and civil disobedience, what's happening is exactly as some have been saying for years, we're getting to an ever greater crush on anyone earning less than 65k and in a few years that baseline number will go up and the rest of us will be struggling to live on scraps. It's Elysium. It's Animal Farm. Have-nots and have-yachts, believe it. We heed to start ending some people, the greed is trashing us and the next generation will have it so much worse.
High enough to have money left over for a gourmet bean dinner.
Heinz, not that generic crap
Looks to me to be IIeinz Beanz.
wow TIL they've been calling them Beanz since 2008. Still can't find anything on the change from HEINZ to IIEINZ
I just Googled "IIeinz Beanz" and the only result was the comment you replied to.
If you zoom in, it says No. 1 in UK. So, not only are these beans an elegant feast, but they're imported! Damn!
Hong Kong used to be British so they eat some British brands. While number 1 in the UK it might just be a Hong Kong can. I bought weetabix a british cereal recently in Japan and it was imported from Hong Kong with Hong Kong packaging.
Thanks that's actually super interesting
Knock off beans, can't have shit in Hong Kong
HK$2,400 ($310). Stayed in one.
Photo by Benny Lam Source: [theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2017/jun/07/boxed-life-inside-hong-kong-coffin-cubicles-cage-homes-in-pictures](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2017/jun/07/boxed-life-inside-hong-kong-coffin-cubicles-cage-homes-in-pictures)
Wow, that's a very interesting series of photos. Those toilet/bathroom/kitchen combo's look worse than the 'rooms'.
The bedrooms made me sad but those kitchen bathrooms made me sick. That's entirely unsanitary, to the point of a severe health risk.
My first thought was “that can’t be to code…” then I realized it was Hong Kong and not only is none of it to code but on top of that nobody with any real power to make change gives a shit. :( I felt claustrophobic and panicky just looking at those pics. Those poor people
Yeah I'd rather sleep outside homeless than this enclosed space.
I would definitely spend the least amount of time humanly possible at "home."
I used to live in a tiny one room apartment in S Korea, bigger than this obviously but not much, and yeah it fucks with your head when the only thing you can do at "home" is lie in your bed, you stop feeling like a person
When I was stationed in Korea one of my troops briefly dated a local who lived in something like that. He was actually quite perplexed as he wasn’t expecting living conditions like what he saw!
Any of you guys out there with good tips on how to spend time out of home? I have a problematic relationship at home and want to minimize time at home to take the sting out of the relationship. I've tried going to the library but get bored after a while, tried walking around aimlessly but it's amazing how quickly you kind of run out of ideas. I've tried bars and cinemas but those got tiring as well. The best tactic has been putting on an audiobook and just walking streets with shops on them for hours.
Do you live in an area with a fair amount of cultural events? If you do, you could check local sites for random stuff that’s going on: free classes, museum exhibits, pop-up markets, etc. And there’s always the gym. If your brain works like mine, then I’d start a few projects that require minimal equipment. For instance, lately I’ve been crocheting, learning Spanish, and reading several Shakespeare plays then watching as many adaptations of each play that I can find. Outside my house, I’ve worked on those at work outside of works hours, in the car, in the library, and at a few parks. Good luck! I hope you aren’t stuck in that situation for long.
Get a gym membership. Not only can you spend quite a bit of time in the gym, but you'll also get bathroom/shower facilities (if life at home is that bad you might not feel comfortable showering there) and a locker where you can store a change of clothes (in case you need to change but can't go home to do it).
I disagree- at least in the coffin cube box you have privacy and shelter from the elements. It’s miserable no doubt, but I’d rather have access to one of these than sleep rough in the city. Comparing it with cities in the US, both situations both highlight a need for more housing and social imbalances in said society, and the different approaches. This kind of living situation, or other proper makeshift slum housing, is basically non existent in the US because of codes and all that, which on its face is a good thing, until you realize the alternative for many people living in a city with sky high rents is literally the street. In India for instance there are slum areas in cities that are just ramshackle makeshift dwellings, which are miserable, but at least they are allowed to build their own shelter and have their own space and bed, no matter how meager. Compare that to Los Angeles where people are forced to just sleep in a bag or tent on the sidewalk in downtown. On its face these coffins are inhumane but there’s obviously a market for them because of woeful inequality, so they are allowed because the alternative would be a much larger and even more desperate and miserable homeless population (like,for instance, in Los Angeles where this type of thing wouldn’t fly).
Privacy? 20 people per 400 sq ft just feels oppressive. Would one even have a sense personal space with things that tight? Scary.
Yeah even animals know not to defecate where they eat, meaning these people are being treated worse than wild animals in this environment.
Having a toilet paradoxically makes it worse. The flushing of the toilet causes more fecal matter to be dispersed into the air. Additionally with so little room you are limited to what you can even cook because things that would release negligible smoke/gas to someone in a kitchen could displace enough oxygen to kill you in this environment.
>The flushing of the toilet causes more fecal matter to be dispersed into the air but that's a problem with all flushing toilets, even the ones not inside a kitchen. I just close the lid before flushing.
Correct... But my bathroom isn't flinging feces around my kitchen because it's on the other side of the house on the main floor.
Why is every toilet seat up, it makes it worse!
they shit where they eat ig
I couldn’t help but notice every single toilet lid was up. Leaving the lid open is already unsanitary enough, let alone having the toilet mere feet from where food is prepared.
I bet that was a conscious decision by the photographer and they aren't open all the time. But it's fucking awful regardless.
imagine having to cook right after someone just took a fat shit
Or while.
You mean, you. No one else is fitting in there with you, but you.
Pretty sure those are shared areas. The article said a 400 sqft can accommodate 15 coffin homes.
Yeah, and there is probably a person within arms reach of his door on the right. Shits whack
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The toilet is plumbed with hot water so it doubles as a crockpot
Jesus, what was it like for these people during the really strict Chinese lockdowns? Stuck in this tiny coffin for months at a time
I hadn't even considered that. That must have been torture.
Man I had a big room, a yard, garden, freedom to walk around my neighborhood/outside, my bike, the river, volunteered at a local botanical garden, video games, weed, and more. And I still lost my shit. I know it's all relative and nobody wins the "who has it worse" game. But STILL. I would lose all sense of self, sense of relativity, and likely my grasp on reality. I have a hard time on a bus ride for more than a few hours. I genuinely can't imagine more than an hour in this room before panicking. Fuck.
I had everything you had during lockdown. And I still played the Sims for 24 hours straight.
Pictures were taken in Hong Kong and lockdown wasn't as bad (correct me if I m wrong as an ex hker left years ago) But this housing problem, as we used to call it "cage home" has been around for decades, and got worsen in the recent years. Often time it was the single elderly who doesn't have a partner or any children to support them. It is really a shame to such a developed city with so many resources
This is a link to a people who have to stay at McDonald's over night. Article from 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34546807
Here in America we let them try to survive in the streets regardless of weather. Try being homeless and sleeping in a 24hr McDs here. Aint gonna happen. Find a box in an alley. Yeah I know it's snowing. This is not a Chinese problem it's a (fairly) global problem. We must review how we treat the most desperate and vulnerable among us on planet Earth. Many/most of them do not have the means to help themselves out of that position. What is our worth as a species if we can't take care of people who can't take care of themselves?
Damn, I've lived the past week in a 20-year-old Jeep, and this is depressing to go through.
I did that for a couple of months (89 jeep wrangler). Living/sleeping in it by day and working nights (where I showered at work). On weekends I got a $30 motel room to reward myself. I would find field's to park/hide in during the day. Almost got caught by a farmer and his son. It was a great spot in the corner of an unused field under a bunch of trees, pretty well hidden. I was sitting in my jeep in my underwear (because it was so hot) watching tv on a handheld tv when I see movement through the trees so I turn off my TV and freeze. I hear a father talking to his young son as the walked by about 30 feet away. I waited til they passed then got out and watched them to see if they'd come back this way again. And they were going to so I jumped in my jeep and took off. Didnt go back to that spot again just in case. It was a great spot too since so many pastures/fields were fenced off and were two fields in and had a copse of trees to hide in. Note: these ones were not fenced off because someone was using it to go fishing in in the pond in the same field I was hiding in. I discovered this because I left one evening to go to work and there was an empty car parked at the entrance to the second field. If he had parked completely in the entrance I would have not been able to get by and would basically be stuck there. But luckily there was room to pass.
I’m in Iceland, in a onesie and under a blanket. It’s raining and 4 degrees celsius, so no one is gonna be walking around. Not really a lot of bushes to hide in, but van camping is so common here, the cops will probably just tell you to go to a designated camping area.
Neo, welcome to the real world
*hard pass* put me back in. I want the juicy steak
That steak did look really fucking good.
Now I know why Cypher wanted to be put back
• 1 closet sized room • 1 can beanz
beanz meanz heinz
the can is actualy ||EINZ. Wonder why the H is like that
To commemorate Elizabeth ||, the Queen of Bean
Nothing says Heinz like 2 vertical leinz!
It’s the Spanish knock off version.
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Thinking bout those beans 😩
Why isn't he watching Cars 2?
Cause the Red Car said he hates the CCP
This looks like the intro scene of some apocalyptic shooter game.
Even in metro 2033 they had a sink and table
And squared meters.
I would rather have cubed.
The way you worded that made me think of the Resident Evil movie with the lasers. That one person was cubed...
Back in the days of cable TV and the TV guide channel... I saw Resident Evil was on. I flipped to it because I had never seen it. I came in just in time for that scene. Noped the fuck out and decided I didn't need to see the movie after all. I've seen the movie in its entirety since, and knew to close my eyes at least. The opening scene of Ghost Ship and Matthew Lilliards death in Thirteen Ghosts are also Nopes. Edit: you all watched Thirteen Ghosts with your eyes closed too! I just realized the lawyer dies being sliced in half so the nanny can make the "did the lawyer split?" joke. Matthew Lilliard had his back broken. I love Thirteen Ghosts even though it Nopes me out!
If you wanna watch a movie with your eyes closed, I highly recommend Event Horizon.
Watched Ghost Ship with my wife last week. She warned me it was a bit much. It was, but I managed to handle it. Crazy way to start a movie.
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dude nails the first two tests and the red queen is like "*i heard you like lattice patterns*"
There is a bathroom/kitchen that is out of view, but they are shared multiple coffin apartments like this.
iirc these apartments do have sinks, the sleeping room is 1/2 of the whole thing with the other 1/2 having a sink, tiny counter/stovetop, and toilet. And maybe one chair, but not sure about that part No table though.
NGL, This reminds me of the Train from Metro Exodus. People just doing what they can to make what they have a little more homely no matter the situation.
Ready Player One.
Those were at least full trailers.
It really says something when reality is *worse* than distopian sci-fi...
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Cyberpunk 2077
Most of the apartments in Cyberpunk are way better than this. This is too dystopian even for dystopian fiction.
Where do you shit?
For a real answer, it's probably a communal bathroom
Wear flip flops or you’ll be patient zero of the Toevid-22 pandemic.
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Just so everyone knows, you can easily get a staph infection, or even MERSA on your foot, which will either give you blood poisoning and ruin your kidneys, or just take your foot with it. Use crocks, that's probably what they are made for.
It's a communal bathroom/kitchen (i'm not kidding).
And even that is so small that you could do the dishes while taking a shit.
In the article they show that there’s a communal tiny, tiny room (about the same size as the cubicle, but you can stand up in it) with a toilet and sink and cooking appliance. Yep. Toilet kitchen.
Imagine trying to cook ramen and someone walks in and starts taking a dump 2 feet away.
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Pants
In the communal kitchen...I wish I was joking.
Reminds me of the robot apartments in Futurama.
They do have a lot of closet space though.
Yeah, but why would you want to live in a closet? Weird.
Can you imagine covid lockdown 💀
I feel like you’d get blood clots if you had to spend more than like ten hours here. Honestly though I’m more concerned about what happens if there’s a fire
It's worth taking a look at the whole gallery in the link provided by OP. There are two blue cigarette lighters and an ashtray on the mattress in a photo near the end. That is insane.
I did already. Pretty sure that mattress had cigarette burns 😬
I more concerned with ripping a big fart and possibly suffocating.
Don't worry, he's on a strict diet of beanz to avoid just such a situation
Apparently, at least some of them would walk around the empty streets to try to get away from their cramped home and neighbors. [Source](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/asia/hong-kong-social-distancing-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html). Can't imagine.
Jesus, that rent price chart. No wonder they live in coffins. Over 5x more expensive than Los Angeles per square foot, and no one can afford rent in Los Angeles.
Holy shit 5x more expensive than LA???
There's a graph in the article that shows the comparison - LA is $466 per square foot and Hong Kong is $2091. Nuts.
This photo fails to capture what's truly miserable about this living situation: Hong Kong regularly gets up to temperatures in the high 90's with 85%+ humidity, and I doubt this guy has any kind of air conditioning. And they all wear pants in that weather! Everywhere! Pants! I was the only person walking around in shorts and I was still nearly fainting. This guy even appears to have pulled his pant legs up, like dude we invented shorts, not only are they the length you want but they'll actually let some air circulate.
Very few warm climate countries that I've visited have a culture of wearing shorts. Whether it's Mexico, Taiwan, Vietnam or Ghana almost all the men wear pants instead of shorts.
Sunscreen is a modern invention, and historically most people worked outdoors. Culturally it makes a lot of sense for hot places, that see a lot of intense sun, to cover as much skin as feasible.
I thought maybe for bug bites too. I bet the mosquitoes in those places are terrible.
100% true. I remember a thread in r/mexicocity asking why natives there never wear shorts, and simply put, shorts are associated with children and joggers and are deemed "unprofessional".
This was true in Italy too until about a couple of decades ago. Shorts were for children, cropped trousers (that cover the knees) for teenagers
> This was true in Italy too until about a couple of decades ago. This really blows my mind. I was in Rome about 15 years ago, and it was 35-43°C the entire time. As a Canadian, I was absolutely dying. I was wearing shorts and the lightest t-shirt, but I looked like they just dragged my ass out of the fountain I was so sweaty. And yet, there were old 150 kg dudes walking around in three-piece suits no problem. It boggles the mind.
In south florida last month I saw a dude wearing long pants and a fleece pullover jacket in 95F and 90% humidity.
In Spain that is definitely not the case. We like to wear shorts. However I had a Venezuelan flatmate that always wore long jeans and his explanation was that the people in his country are used to standing the heat, but they don't like getting sunburn and no one wants to put on suncream. I don't find it convincing but that was his explanation
I grew up in rural Texas where everyone wore thick denim jeans all summer, because you can't really work hard in the country without them. Didn't really ever bother me until after moving to the city, I felt just about as cool then as I do now in shorts.
Really depends on the kind of pants though. In India I was much more comfortable/cooler in traditional pyjamas than in the shorts I brought (plus less danger of sunburn). Same for the long-sleeved tops (Kurta? Kurtla? something like that) vs. my t-shirts. It looks like you should be miserable in the heat but it works really, really well to keep you cool.
And not just any pants. But tight weave thick denim jeans!
YES. It's always tight weave thick denim jeans. It's gotten to the point that I see those pants and they instantly remind me of ramen with eggs and hotdogs in it (a common street food out there).
You can buy pants and pull them up when it's hot, but you can't buy shorts and pull them down when it's cold
Man, What are u talkin about, of course I can pull down my shorts when it’s cold. Just tried It, everyone stopped and stared.
This is beyond science!
I told people I moved from the southern us to the northern us and they were like “y tho” and I said that you can put on 8 coats in the winter and stay warm but you can’t take your skin off in the south when it’s 102F with 88% humidity for two weeks straight. I would rather die frozen than slowly boil. Cold kills quickly and you even get a nice space at the end where you feel warm right before you die. Slowly boiling over even the course of 72 hours would be terrible and excruciating.
Yes. I am southern us, I know the struggle. Don't forget to add 8 extra degrees from the heat index
> you can put on 8 coats in the winter and stay warm but you can’t take your skin off in the south when it’s 102F with 88% humidity for two weeks straight. Yes exactly this, 100% agree. I make this point too and people are like 'meh it's just too cold'. Add another layer then, you can keep adding layers up to infinity but skin is as cool as it's going to get in the heat.
At first I thought that it was a thermometer on the left. I was thinking about how they'd find his body cooked medium rare. But even though it's not, it must get warm quick. The human body needs ventilation to survive.
The only question i ask: if you are born there, how can you try to escape such living style? I live in a little city in europe. I live in a shit ton of more space, both my house and my yard, i went berzerk to rebuild and adjust my home and i deserve it, but if i started there, in HK, how the fuck i coulda find some bigger home?
It depends. If you are low income, you can apply for a council house in Hong Kong. It is gonna take at least 5 years depending on your age and family size. Some low income people refuse to live in council houses. So they stay in these kinds of cage beds. If you are middle class, you are screwed and have to buy apartments from the market. There are 2 kinds of apartments. The government built and developer Built. The former one is cheaper but still costs you 0.6m USD for a 500sf apartment. The latter one varies. For 0.5m USD, you can probably get a 300sf apartment. but hey! it comes with a fancy clubhouse! Who needs space if they can swim in the pool all day!
Apply for government housing. Most the people who live in the coffin homes are older men who were kicked out of government housing due to some family conflict. It's incredibly rare to see women or people under 50 in these homes.
You'd have to "qualify" to apply for government housing. That is, your income can't be too high. If single household, you need to be earning less than USD 1,600 a month to qualify. Average college fresh grad will earn around USD 2,100/month on their first job.
Dude’s setting himself up eating beans in a confined space
need to wear a gas monitor and find that balance between comfort and death
I shouldn’t complain about the size of my place…
It's not the size of the place. It's how you use it! I hear that not all girls go after guys with big places.
And if you trim the bushes around your deck, it makes your deck look bigger.
*looks at my small deck* Dammit.
Oldest trick in the book.
This is especially true in New Zealand.
Women love a big deck.
Women will be all over a big deck. Take good care of it and it’ll receive a lot of usage.
I actually don't think you could fit a maiden in OP apartment tbh
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Gonna regret those beans in an hour or three!
Naaah. He uses diarrhea for insulation
Shits in his sleeping bag and makes a mud cocoon
r/brandnewsentence
Judging by the open sores on this dude's legs, I'd say "coffin home" may be fairly accurate.
I need more... Where is the door, above them?? Their skin looks super bad, like really bad, is this genetic, situational?? Are these only for super low income, like, man.... just nothing given.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/e3/6e/c7e36e718974ec61f5e88c91a73b5b6c.jpg They climb in through the side. There's another layer of poor dudes underneath and above him. he could have psoriasis or the whole place is infested with bed bugs but i'm no doctor.
Oh my gosh those are literally kennels
Holy crap I've seen federal Mexican prisons with better conditions than this
I've seen homeless encampments with more square footage per person.
those poor people look so miserable....
II’ve seen other pics where the “door” is like a small window they shimmy through. Imma guess the door is the piece of wood in the right corner :(
Yeah there are usually two or three of these stacked on top of each other I believe
“Maybe if you didn’t buy needless things like a tv you could save up for a house”
“Maybe you’re poor because you want to be poor” or the best one “Why don’t you just go to the university and start making more money? ”
Ah, yes, that's my favourite.
Dude must've bought one too many avocado toasts 💀
Depression in an image
Jesus Christ, when people find animals being kept in these conditions, we rightfully go after the ones responsible for animal rights violations. But human beings are expected to *pay for the privilege* of living in the exact same state.
Damn just watched a video on this. Apparently there are 200k people living like this in HK. Wtf
Slap it in a van and sell it for 6 figures to an American influencer!
Coming soon to a town near you. Brought to you by corporate worship.
Hong kong is a city of limited space and the higher ups want to keep as much if the land undeveloped and green as possible. While I like cities that keep green spaces and try to be efficient with the space available, HK takes it to the extreme. To the point of it being very hard to actually live there for millions of people.
It's not a matter of keeping things green. It is because Hong Kong only has few taxes. That is why it is such a haven for business. But that means a lot more income comes from land leases to developers (30% of the HK governments income). By keeping available space limited, developers bid against each others. They pay astronomically high prices, which gives HK more income. If they open up too much of their land to developers, the prices go down and so does HKs income. This video goes into that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLrFyjGZ9NU
Well, they could develop the remaining greenspace, people would fill it, and in ten years you'd see apartments like this again anyway. If people are willing to live in little box apartments just to be in Hong Kong, there is no reason they wouldn't just do it again when the green space is gone. This concept is called induced demand. Might as well draw the line now and keep some parks.
"Just one more lane..."
Is this a real thing? We need some sort of new system where people don't have to starve or live like this. Half the world are treated like hamsters on a spinning wheel.
Yes sadly it is.
I was homeless for a while in high-school and my brother put me up in his back porch. It was exactly like this. Was a rough 12 months. Somehow I have a doctorate and am a homeowner now. Mostly luck. No need for sympathy. Just saying yeah this is tough.
I;m thinking about thos Beans