The next time you think you don't have enough space...

what are the scissors for?

Odds 'n ends.

hey

you leave my gramma alone.
shes COLD..

I love your grandma.

I love how she made her world prettier with what she had.

it is just a cheap way to cover the vents I think.. but yeah.. she matched all her colors.

She has a vivacious red theme going on in there

This is the Chinese version of "The Projects", it's for people who have no money and the housing is supplied and designed by the government. No one designs worse housing than Facist Communists. Their housing architecture always looks like a prison or concentration camp. At least the Russians had windows in their versions. American versions of the same period are better, but always surrounded by chain link fence, as if we are trying to keep the poor people contained.

There is a community bathroom and shower area somewhere in the building.

Good grief! There was a picture with 4 people in it. Please don't tell me 4 people live in that one "house".

Ok, what's with the ones with only kids in them?

Uh...perhaps they need to reevaluate their current layout.

This dude deserves royalties from Sprite.

Did anyone check out hsi other stuff?

I think this dude's got a PC.

Children of the Rice.

oh . my . god.

I think this is common in China,especially in the rural area

Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997. All those public housing were built by the Imperial British colonialists not the Fascist Chinese Communists. There was so much corruption that British sergeants within the Hong Kong Police Force returned to Britain as millionaires.

Five Points housing in New York:












http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/immigrants-ny-1.htm

women sleeping inpolice station:







Sleeping in cellar:




http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/immigrants-ny-2.htm

Immigrants such as the Gaelic speaking Irish, German Jews, Poles and Italians lived in the Five Points ghetto area.

This is the first time I've seen this thread. Quite a contrast to the way most of us live over here.

On the pics I clicked, most have a TV and a fan or two. It must get quite warm, I would think.

I presume that there are communal bathrooms somewhere in the building, perhaps on each floor?

Thanks for posting this, GW.

Talk72000, I would never defend British colonialism, but what I said about Communist/Fascist architecture remains true. I think all those pictures of tenements you posted in NYC are now condos and coops starting at $500,000. At least most of them have windows. My paternal family can trace their immigrant roots back to an address on Hester St. The building remains, but I couldn't afford to rent or buy there now.

Reyn, you're welcome. It sort of makes you grateful for where ever you live.

Here's a follow-up to this thread with a local story. Note that the article talks about 200 square feet, or so. These are for homeless folks.

----------------

How much room do you need?

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
6/17/2009

The City of Vancouver has moved closer to approving two new forms of affordable housing.

Laneway houses, essentially allowing the conversion of garages into condo's and dividing apartments into secondary suites are being promoted as solutions for the city's rental shortages.

Concerns have been raised about the floor space being limited to little more than 200 square feet, but Councillor Raymond Louie says that shouldn't happen, "The concept is to provide affordability. I would expect that these relaxations, down to the very small 205's would occur on a very limited basis. It would generally stay at the larger size of 280 square feet."

Louie says public hearings will be held some time next month.

I believe Manhattan still has a handful of SRO's (single room occupancies) and they are about 100 feet each. They do have windows and since the early 1980's- air conditioning. It was always meant as temporary housing, but some people were in these cubicles for years. When Reagan eliminated housing subsidies for the poorest of the poor in the mid-80's many of these places closed, only to open later (with walls knocked down) as rental units for the middle class. About that time the streets became flooded with homeless people. I never saw women with children homeless in the subways until that time. Some of the subsidies were restored in the 90's, but by then this cheap form of housing was replaced by luxury condos and now most of the poorest of the poor live in the outer boroughs. I guess 100 feet is better than a bench in the subway or park. 280 feet could be considered spacious to such a person .