Is Hong Kong’s drive to eliminate substandard housing doing more harm than good?

AI Summary

Hong Kong's campaign to eliminate substandard housing is raising questions about whether it could worsen conditions for low-income residents. The article profiles a single mother and her children, who moved from a squatter hut to a 200-square-foot subdivided flat in Kwai Tsing after years of housing insecurity.

Housewife May and her three children were overjoyed last September when they moved into a 200 sq ft subdivided flat in Kwai Tsing, a Hong Kong district with one of the city’s lowest average monthly household incomes. For years, the 50-year-old single parent had lived in a squatter hut with her son and two daughters, where they had to climb hundreds of stairs daily. They later moved into a 100 sq ft subdivided flat before securing their current place. Located on the 15th floor of a lift-equipped...