This picture taken on August 10, 2024 reveals retired janitor Chun Loi, 84, sitting on her mattress whereas dealing with electrical followers inside her 50-square-foot windowless one-room flat in Hong Kong. Agence France-Presse
HONG KONG — Even with two electrical followers whirring, retired janitor Chun Loi was sweating profusely in her windowless, one-room flat that swelters throughout Hong Kong’s humid summer season.
Her 50-square-foot room is partitioned with well-worn planks from 4 different small rooms, generally often known as sub-divided items.
It’s a sweaty however low-cost choice that has proliferated throughout Hong Kong, one of many world’s most costly housing markets.
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Specialists warn that, with 2024 anticipated to be the most popular yr in recorded historical past, aged individuals like Chun dwelling in Hong Kong’s small, poorly ventilated items face higher dangers.
AFP joined a Pink Cross Hong Kong workforce that works with households that dwell in items like Chun’s to enhance their dwelling circumstances.
“The warmth makes it very laborious for me… I really feel drained,” the 84-year-old advised AFP on Saturday, when the temperature crept previous 32 levels Celsius (90 levels Fahrenheit).
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“I attempt to keep in as a lot as attainable with my followers… In any other case, the place are you able to go? It’s embarrassing to remain in eating places and malls if I’m not consuming something,” Chun mentioned.
Her unit in Hong Kong’s Kowloon area prices about HK$2,000 (US$256) a month.
She has waited greater than six years for a public housing condominium to grow to be obtainable, however with solely 430,000 focused for development within the subsequent decade, her possibilities of getting one stay out of attain for now.
Eva Yeung of Pink Cross Hong Kong, who has been working with about 650 households in subdivided items, warned that the aged dwelling in such items are particularly weak.
“Local weather change impacts everybody,” Yeung mentioned. “However the influence is just not equal as a result of some individuals, on account of their dwelling circumstances and bodily circumstances, are affected greater than others.”
Poor dwelling circumstances
The variety of subdivided items grew quickly over the previous 20 years as the worth of Hong Kong’s personal residential market tripled and public housing development did not sustain with demand.
Town is persistently ranked as one of the vital costly housing markets on this planet, making low-cost options for individuals like Chun tougher to search out and blowing out ready lists for public housing.
Hong Kong’s 2021 census discovered that, out of a inhabitants of seven.5 million, 215,700 individuals dwell in such “shoe-box” areas — nearly one in 50 individuals.
The aged are the fastest-growing group amongst them, with a rise of greater than 4,300 individuals from 2016. That displays a United Nations forecast that Hong Kong will grow to be the town with the world’s oldest inhabitants by 2050.
Yeung tries to enhance the dwelling circumstances of the households she works with by displaying them easy methods to enhance air circulation or handle the temperature.
This picture taken on August 10, 2024 reveals a normal view of the condominium block the place retired janitor Chun Loi, 84, lives in her 50-square-foot windowless one-room flat in Hong Kong. Agence France-Presse
She mentioned indexes that measure components akin to temperature, humidity and air high quality had been all under worldwide requirements.
“It means their well being has been severely affected… apart from bodily impacts, such dwelling environments would additionally have an effect on feelings,” she mentioned.
A 2020 research by the Chinese language College of Hong Kong discovered that 5 consecutive “scorching nights” — outlined as when temperatures rise above 28C (82F) — would elevate the chance of dying by 6.66 %.
A authorities activity pressure that tackles this housing challenge is anticipated to this month announce minimal dwelling requirements and measures to eradicate substandard items.
‘Local weather catastrophe’ –
Lam Chiu-ying, the previous chief of Hong Kong’s climate observatory and a Pink Cross council member, rooted round Chun’s unit searching for any spare room.
He lastly noticed an empty cabinet above the doorway that might maintain one other fan.
Lam, an ardent environmentalist who famously mentioned he would by no means use an air conditioner, had been visiting households to supply recommendation.
“Local weather change is regularly morphing into local weather catastrophe,” he advised AFP.
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“However we will’t merely quit… what I’m doing is attempting my finest earlier than the dying of the human race, hoping that individuals would get up and perhaps then, rapidly, we could have hope.”