対人距離の確保など夢の夢… 香港の「極小住宅」

【香港ＡＦＰ＝時事】香港在住のウォン・メイインさん（70）にとっては、新型コロナウイルスが大流行しようとも、ソーシャル・ディスタンシング（対人距離の確保）などはなから不可能な話だ。2畳半ほどの広さの部屋に、息子（43）と2人で暮らしているのだから。（写真は香港の「極小住宅」に暮らすウォン・メイインさん）
　ウォンさん親子は、世界で最も人口密度が高いとされるビル群の一つにある、香港の有名な「極小住宅」に住んでいる。
　普通なら１世帯の居間ほどの面積に、薄いプレハブの壁で仕切られた６つの小部屋が設けられている。ここに計１２人が住んでおり、台所とシャワーは共用だ。
　ウォンさん親子が暮らす部屋の中には２段ベッドが置かれており、ウォンさんが下で、息子が上で眠る。
　キリスト教系福祉団体の関係者はＡＦＰの取材に対し、こういった建物では換気や排水が悪く、ウイルス感染の「リスクが高い」と話した。
　ウォンさんの部屋の家賃は、月２０００香港ドル（約２万８０００円）。香港では、これでも最も狭い部類に入らない。
　当局の２０１６年の調べによると、２畳半程度からそれ未満の広さの極小住宅に住む人が、推定でおよそ２０万人いたという。
　香港は、数字の上では世界で最も富裕な都市の一つだ。しかし住民は、まん延する不平等や、深刻な住宅不足、高額な家賃に苦しみ、歴代政府はこういった問題を解決できずにいる。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/05/19-12:57）

Squashed inside the 50-square-foot living space she shares with her son, Wong Mei-ying knows social-distancing during the coronavirus pandemic is all but impossible.
The 70-year-old Hong Konger lives in one of the city's notorious cubicle flats -- subdivided apartments that make up some of the most densely packed buildings in the world.
Earlier this week, authorities announced a new local outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in Wong's neighbourhood -- the first local transmission case in the financial hub in nearly a month.
The news has put Wong on edge.
With officials testing hundreds of residents nearby, Wong says she tries to follow the government's social distancing and hygiene advice.
But that's not easy inside cubicle flats.
We have 12 people living here, Wong told AFP, gesturing to the five other cubicles that have been squeezed into the apartment alongside a shared kitchen and shower.
We have to line up to cook our meals, queue for shower. Around dinner time, the kitchen will be so crowded and every one of us wears a mask, she added.
Jack Sit from Asbury Methodist Social Services told AFP that subdivided flats were high-risk in terms of virus transmission, saying that ventilation and drainage systems were often poor in those buildings.
Wong's subdivided apartment is located in a crumbling walk-up building with cracked walls. What should be a main living room for a single family contains six cubicles separated from each other by thin pre-fab walls.
She sleeps on the bottom bunk, her 43-year-old son takes the top bed.
On paper Hong Kong is one of the richest cities in the world.
But it suffers from pervasive inequality, an acute housing shortage and eye-watering rents that successive governments have failed to solve.
In 2016 authorities estimated some 200,000 people lived in cubicles that were 50-square feet or less.
Wong's cubicle -- which costs HK$2,000 ($258) a month -- is not even the smallest type of home available on the market.
That dubious accolade belongs to so-called cage homes, which are little more than a single bed surrounded by a lockable metal cage.
Wong works at a fast food chain and recently had her shifts cut from six days a week to five as business suffers during the pandemic.
She dreams of having an apartment for just herself and her son, who works in construction.
But that would cost HK$7,000-8,000 per month, about the same as what I earn each month, she said.