Ruhi Çenet made a documentary about “coffin homes” in Hong Kong – tiny 16-square-foot living spaces (about the size of a parking spot). 200,000 people live in these tiny boxes in one of the richest cities in the world. This video shows how expensive housing has created a huge gap between rich and poor people.
What Life is Like in Coffin Homes:
Tiny Spaces
- Small apartments get divided into 30 separate “coffins” with no windows for light or fresh air
- Some people can’t even fit their shoulders inside their space
Daily Problems
- People keep their hair short because it gets too hot with no air flow
- It takes 10 minutes just to change clothes because there’s no room to move
- People in bottom coffins have a little storage space, but people on top have almost nothing
Health Issues
- The air is 4 times more polluted than safe levels
- Bed bugs are so bad they can make people sick with anemia (low blood count)
- Many homes don’t have kitchens, so people cook food in dirty bathrooms next to toilets
Money Problems
- A cleaner who earns $650 a month pays half of it ($325) just to rent one coffin
- People wait over 10 years to get cheaper government housing, and even that’s not free
Shocking Facts
- In Hong Kong, there are 7.5 million people with very little space, so buildings are even built on top of parking garages
- Prison cells (80 sq. ft. with a private toilet) are actually more comfortable than these 16 sq. ft. homes
- Even after death, graves are only rented for 6 years, then bodies are removed because burial space costs too much
A Story of Hope Wong, a 63-year-old man, lost his money and family. He lives in a tiny space and can only afford cheap, unhealthy food. But he still goes to a temple to pray and says he’s “thankful for what he has.”
The Future? When asked where they’ll be in 10 years, many people say they think they’ll be dead by then.
This documentary shows the sad reality of extreme poverty existing right next to extreme wealth in modern cities.
