Looking for dinner? It's just there, next to the toilet
Can you imagine cooking dinner in the same room as your toilet? This is an unfortunate reality for many living in claustrophobic conditions in Hong Kong. Photographer Benny Lam documented the city's stark contrasts.
Time to prepare dinner
Peking duck and morning glory leaves are on the chopping board, only a few centimetres from the toilet. Mung bean sprouts served in a bowl are placed on the opposite counter, crammed next to a rice cooker, teapot, condiments and other kitchen utensils. In many apartments in Hong Kong, cooking and defecating can both take place in the one tiny space.
Kitchen and bathroom merge
Canadian photographer Benny Lam captured the homes and lives of this hidden community in Hong Kong for "Trapped," a series of photographs he produced in partnership with SoCO - the Society for Community Organization, a non-profit organization that works to alleviate poverty and advocates for civil rights.
Restricted space
With a population of nearly 7.5 million people and almost no available developable land remaining, apartment and housing prices in Hong Kong have skyrocketed and are now the most expensive in the world. Some people in this metropolis are left with no other option but to inhabit mini spaces, where daily household activities must be carried out in the same restricted space.
Unbearable living conditions
According to SoCO, based on Hong Kong's Census and Statistic Department's report, 200,000 people live in 88,000 of these tiny, cramped apartments. Residents are forced to be creative when storing things in their limited space and going about their daily activities.
Prices of apartments doubled
According to government statistics, the price of apartments in the heart of Hong Kong doubled between 2007 and 2012, to an average of 108,546 Hong Kong dollars ($13,900, €11,200) per square meter. Some residents in these tiny flats dread going home, and many say the most difficult thing about living in a restricted space is not being able to breathe in fresh air.
Welcome to single-mattress sized apartments
A tenant eats a tin of beans while watching television in his single mattress-sized apartment. There is often no alternative for those on low incomes but to endure these claustrophobic living conditions, where they can neither sit upright nor lie stretched out. Cockroaches and bed bugs become their "friends."
'Coffin' and 'cage' homes
Lam spent two years documenting poor living conditions in Hong Kong’s old district, where the gap between rich and poor is ever-widening. These flats, which are often referred to as "cage" or "coffin" homes, indicate a stark disparity in Hong Kong, with its abundant shopping malls, luxurious hotels and towering apartment buildings that stand tall alongside shockingly inadequate living spaces.
Public housing out of reach
Living in such a confined space is likely to take a psychological toll on most people. Yet many tenants have been living this way for years. The average waiting time for public housing is five years, but for many singles under 65, it is common to wait more than a decade.
Living conditions 'an insult to human dignity'
The United Nations has deemed these nightmarish "coffin" or "cage" flats as "an insult to human dignity." While the Hong Kong government has said 280,000 new public apartments are set to be built by 2027, SoCO says much needs to be done in the meantime to improve the quality of life for people living in these conditions.