Living in a box: The claustrophobic 'coffin homes' that could survive city's housing reforms

Lai Shan Sze moves quickly, bounding up the grungy, dimly lit stairwell of the unit block in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district.

- Helen Davidson

Lai Shan Sze moves quickly, bounding up the grungy, 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 tiled 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 (Soco), 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," says 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 says, asking not to be named or photographed.

The term "shoebox housing" somehow still does not fully convey the claustrophobic nature of Hong Kong's living spaces.

Reforms announced in recent months try to tackle the problem by mandating major improvements and regulations to be in place by the end of 2026. But critics say they do not target the worst of the housing - coffin and cage homes - and risk reducing supply as public housing fails to meet demand.