HK cage dwellers

[Woodpecker]

As with any rich cities around the world, like San Francisco, Tokyo, New York, there are plenty of homeless people. Are they better or worse off than the cage people? I'm not saying which is right or wrong, like others said, it is a complex social problem and there are rich and poor people everywhere, it is the government's job to help them.
In Hong Kong, I think the government should use the money that they get from selling all the land to the rich developers to help the poor, and/or tax the upper class to pay for housing for the poor.

[jaykay]

I have been told (may or may not be correct) that cage dwellers own their cage - which may well be why some "prefer" it to some tenancy type arrangement where they have no security.

No they don't. They rent them. Usually a slum type landlord will place several cages in a single room and charge rent for each one, usually in old run down areas in places such as SSP or Tai Kok Tsui. The rents per square foot are actually higher than some luxury apartments in HK according the the SCMP. No air con, shared facilities. Not a nice place to be.

[Sigga]

In Hong Kong, I think the government should use the money that they get from selling all the land to the rich developers to help the poor, and/or tax the upper class to pay for housing for the poor.

HK is owned by and run for the tycoons. It's their personal playground, safeguarded by a political administration composed of their own members or compliant former civil servants chosen by Beijing. In HK, you're either a tycoon or you're nobody.

For some reason, I find it hard to get exercised by cage homes. If the cages had walls and a door, I imagine it would be less offensive. Then they would be no different to tacky long-stay hotels with shared facilities. And many cheap hotels do have rooms that small.

These people should likely be in government housing. Of course, many (all?) of them are not PRs so do not have the right to it. They've chosen to come here with little money and few skills in the hope of a better life. Some have failed, some will succeed. For many, I imagine, it's a 7-year waiting game.

The government (this one or the one up north, who can tell any more?) decided to admit tens of thousands of near-peasants from China each year, and didn't consider the consequences. Should non-PRs be allowed welfare cheques and subsidised housing? Of course not. The result? Cage homes and the City of Sadness.

Government policies and migration created this underclass, but I don't believe public money should be used to prop it up. More or less all social problems in HK seem to relate back to the land use policy, which will never be changed while subservient, incompetent people are in power.

Over the next decades, China will improve and HK will decline. They'll meet somewhere in the middle.