Number of people sleeping in Hong Kong McDonald’s branches skyrockets


images-like-this-have-become-far-too-common-in-hong-kong-china-and-japan-thanks-to-soaring-property-and-rental-prices-scores-of-newly-homeless-people-are-being-forced-to-find-sanctuary-in-mcdonalds

Who are these McSleepers?

Saving on air conditioning costs, as well as comfort and security, topped a list of reasons given by these interviewees, followed by high rents, conflict with family members, the ability to develop social relations at the chain and substandard housing.

Other reasons included saving on transport costs and time to work, and seeking temporary shelter while waiting for low-rent public housing.

“Family is the basic unit in a society,” Tai Ping Shan publication commission chairwoman Jennifer Hung Sin-yu said. “Even one person who has a home but cannot return is too many. This phenomenon is worth our attention.”

Hung said the reasons given by interviewees showed that unaffordable housing had forced the poor into inferior living conditions such as subdivided flats, which subsequently drove them into McDonald’s for comfort and security.

The complete article

Shirley Zhao — South China Morning Post

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