Hong Kong
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On a summer afternoon in Hong Kong, Yong Fong Yang’s flat felt like an oven. Her air conditioner ran with a complete explosion, but the small, roofed room was still burnt with heat, with a thermometer inside at 36°C (96.8°F).
“It’s so hot that sometimes I can’t even sleep,” Yong said. Her 13-year-old grandson had just returned home from school and was sweaty and soaked after climbing up the ninth floor to arrive at the apartment.
The two live together in the rooftop structure of an elevator-free building in the crowded district of Siam Shui Po. Like many low-income families in the neighborhood, they were pushed into makeshift housing by rent and chronic shortages in cities, on paper, at least one of the richest in the world.
Climate change is making things worse for under-contained people
During the summer, the thin walls are uninsulated, cracked roofs leak under heavy rain, and heat turns the space into a furnace. Due to the high humidity, Hong Kong’s subtropical climate is already making the hot day even stronger.
Over the past few months, Hong Kong has been hit with unforgiving fever warnings. But tens of thousands of residents remain salted in houses smaller than their parking spaces, and staying cool as the weather warms is a luxury.
An estimated 220,000 people live in fragmented units, “cage homes,” or illegal rooftop flats across semi-autonomous Chinese cities. Many units have poor ventilation, no windows, and are often invaded by cockroaches, mice and bedbugs.
“Some of the conditions are very inhumane,” said Sze Lai Shan, deputy director of the Nonprofit Association Community Organization (SOCO). “They live in 15 square feet of space. They share kitchens and toilets with over 15, 20 or 30 households.”
These types of homes, built with basic building materials such as sheet metal, get unusually hot during the day and hot at night. This is in stark contrast to the sparkling steel and glass skyscrapers filling the skyline of China’s best financial hubs.
This year’s SOCO survey found that indoor temperatures for such flats reached 41°C (105.8°F) even when the outdoors were cool.
For many, the heat this year has felt worse than ever. In the same survey, 93% of residents said this summer was less excruciating than last year.
Overcrowded cities are becoming disproportionately hot amid changing climates. According to a World Bank report, average urban temperatures across Asia were measured warmer up to 5.9°C (10.6°F) than in rural environments.
During the summer full swing, CNN spoke to multiple residents of the fragmented unit. Many of them asked to use only one name or remain anonymous for privacy reasons.
“It’s so hot that I feel like I’m getting heat stroke,” said Wu, a middle-aged man who lives in a fragmented flat without air conditioning at Sham Shui Po. His small room is packed with small beds and scattered trinkets, making it impossible to withstand the heat in the afternoon.
Just a block away, 15-year-old Roy lives with his mother in a small, windowless, fragmented unit.
“It’s really suffocating. It feels like it’s detached from the fresh air outside. I feel like I’m detached from the world,” he said.
His stigma regarding his living conditions has socially withdrawn Roy. “It’s like having a wall or a splitting person that forbids you to meet new friends. I feel pessimistic and heavy. I’ve lost confidence,” he said.
Roy’s physical health is also struggling. Severe fever led to nerve paralysis in the face. He believes it has been exacerbated by the trembling flat living conditions.
Nearby, 69-year-old retired TSE spends his days at his local library to escape the heat. “It’s still hot after I come back,” he said. To cope, he takes three cold showers a day.
For Yeung, keeping it cool means sacrifice. Over the summer, she can cut back on one meal a day and have the air conditioning run for her grandchildren.
A woman who lives in a rooftop slum in Kunton, across the city, told CNN “I feel like I’m living in a barbecue,” adding that the fever can cause stomach problems.
According to a SOCO summer 2024 survey, 83% of residents of the fragmented home reported sleep disorders, while 60% experienced emotional instability, more than half had skin conditions and about a third reported dizziness.
The extreme heat inside Hong Kong’s fragmented apartments is not only a stalk from poor housing, but also from the severe climate crisis.
According to Climate Watcher Copernicus, 2024 was the hottest year on the planet. Hong Kong was no exception.
The number of “very hot days” that year, with temperatures reaching 33°C or more (91.4°F) that year, rose to 52 from just 60 years ago, according to the city’s weather agency Hong Kong Observatory.
Two months ago, the city recorded the hottest June day in history. The observatory warns that extreme thermal events are becoming more frequent, intense and prolonged. And the city’s poorest residents are taking the brunt of it.
In low-income districts like Sham Shui PO, where buildings are packed tightly, the urban heat island effect reduces nighttime cooling and increases overnight temperatures.
Wu told CNN that fever often keeps him awake. “I feel very helpless,” he said. “I can’t even sleep soundly. I just want a good night.”
“They don’t want to live like this,” Ceze said. “But they don’t have a choice.”
Despite being a rich and advanced city with one of the world’s largest public housing systems, Hong Kong continues to face a severe shortage of vibrant, accessible homes. Demographics: Affordable Price Survey of International Housing shows that for 14 years, financial hubs have been ranked as the world’s most affordable housing market.
The Hong Kong government told CNN it is determined to tackle substandard housing by increasing public supply. Authorities aim to build 30,000 light public housing units between 2027 and 28, with more than 21,000 transition housing units being introduced or in the process.
Such promises are familiar to Hong Kong residents. Since the extradition to China in 1997, all administrations have pledged to tackle the property crisis, but the city continues to see housing and eye-catching prices.
The Hong Kong government owns all the land, manages supply and sells parcels to auction developers. This is a system that has historically generated significant city revenues, allowing taxes to be kept low while providing enviable public services. But it also led to one of the hottest real estate markets in the world: affordable housing and a sustained shortage of obvious inequality.
Regarding the fragmented housing crisis, some experts argue that the real problem is not just a real estate price or a lack of land, but a system that overlooks those who are most in need.
“This is purely a failure of public housing policy,” said Michael Wong, professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong.
Wong says the main problem is that tenants don’t have to leave public housing for a long time since their income has increased. Residents who become middle-income clinging to public homes, even though they want to move because there is no affordable private flats in the city.
This will stop new applicants from coming in and push low-income residents into the private rental market. “People who really need it can’t get it. They have to find other kinds of homes, so they have to find these fragmented units of very poor quality,” he told CNN.
Even in dangerous and often illegal conditions, tenants usually exceed HK$3,000 (USD382) per month.
Despite growing concerns, policy reforms are slowing down. The proposed “basic housing” bill the government hopes to enact in 2026 would introduce minimum sizes and ventilation standards for rental units, but some tenants fear that the movement will not earn rent.
Meanwhile, the pressure from Beijing is increasing. In a 2021 speech, Xia Baolong, head of the Hong Kong and Macaure Fairs office, called on the city to “say goodbye to the houses of subdivided flats and cages” by 2049.
But for residents like Roy, the proposed reforms bring fear, not relief. He is a minor and his mother does not have a Hong Kong ID, so he is not eligible for public housing. The bill’s new scale and ventilation standards could make units illegal. “I’m afraid of losing my home,” he said, “but there’s nothing I can do.”
The uncertain housing situation has pushed many of Hong Kong’s low-income earners emotionally, physically and economically to breaking points.
“I’m really upset. A lot of people are going to die. They can’t make it,” said TSE, 69.
Soco’s Sze says the outcome can be devastating. “That’s sad… a lot of people die in cage houses or in subdivided apartments. Sometimes we have to help arrange funerals for them,” she said.
For Yeung, in his 60s, his biggest concern is for the next generation. “I feel uncomfortable and upset,” she said. “I want the government to help my grandchildren.”
SOCO has urged the government to act faster. The group is seeking additional power and water subsidies. It is a basic lifeline that can help vulnerable households get hot in the city.
For now, families like Yeung’s and Roy’s are little certain about when or what meaningful changes will come.
