In an otherwise opulent Hong Kong, more than 100,000 people live in tiny cages and cubicles that the UN has deemed 'insulting to human dignity'.
Most Hongkongers know little about the life of such 'cage dwellers'.
I came to understand the gravity of their situation only a year ago - after living in Hong Kong for six years.
Some of my friends and I have begun visiting children who live in such cage homes with their parents. We help them with their English homework. Because they have no space at home to spread out their books and study, we meet in a classroom in Sham Shui Po, within walking distance of one of the many cage home units in the area. I have also visited cage homes several times with Sze Lai-shan, a dedicated social worker for Soco.
During a visit, I noticed a narrow staircase that led up to one of the apartments. The small entrance was flanked by a restaurant on one side and a clothing store on the other. An upstairs apartment we visited was divided into around 20 cages. There were also two toilet stalls (each equipped with the stump of a hosepipe for showering) and a run-down kitchen with broken windows.
The toilet stalls had no doors and just a thin wooden board separated them. There was no privacy for the 20 residents who used them. Two toilets for all of them meant that 10 people had to use a single one. That's very unhygienic.
Other aspects of life in the cage homes were similarly terrible.