Attempt to tackle 'shoebox housing' runs into trouble

Authorities are seeking to fix the problem of tiny, overcrowded housing but critics say new regulations fail to address the worst offenders

- Helen Davidson

Lai Shan Sze bounds quickly up the dimly lit stairwell of the unit block in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district. The social worker knocks on a door and announces her arrival, moves into a tiny entranceway and past the kitchenette from where an elderly woman waves, and into a skinny hall lined with what look like plywood cupboards.

They are, in fact, individual units, Hong Kong's infamous "coffin homes", housing dozens in spaces not much larger than a single bed, stacked two high to the ceiling.

Sze, the deputy director of civil rights group the Society for Community Organization, taps on a couple of the doors, a pile of paper topped with a hastily sketched map of residents scrunched in her other hand.

A few faces emerge, and she hands out information sheets.

"This is the first time I've lived in a home like this," said one woman from a top-floor coffin home. She used to live in Shenzhen, in mainland China, but after moving to Hong Kong she and her husband separated. "My family, relatives and friends will be embarrassed if they see me like this," she said, asking not to be named or photographed.