Rows of apartments for workers in Binh Tan District often span between 6-15 sq.m.
The HCMC Department of Construction recently proposed that apartments in the city must have at least 5 sq.m worth of floor area for each person, with alleys spanning at least 4 m in width, situated no further than 100 m from the main road, and with escape routes. Such conditions are not favorable for workers who'd rather stay in tight-spaced apartments to save costs.
In an apartment row on Bia Truyen Thong Street, near the Taiwanese garment company Pouyuen, 55-year-old Nguyen Thi Hoa rents one small apartment for her family of nine.
She said her family members work as textile workers, whose earnings must cover a monthly rent of VND9 million ($360).
"I and my children and grandchildren have lived here for dozens of years. It's a bit tight, but we've gotten used to it," Hoa said.
Most people park their motorbikes outside to save space inside the apartments. Clothes are also hung outside to dry.
About 200 m away is another apartment row in an alley of provincial road 10, a residential area for the majority of workers from the Mekong Delta.
Muoi, who migrated from Dong Thap to HCMC for work, said she has been renting an apartment spanning 4 sq.m for VND1 million a month.
"I'm old now, and not making much money to afford a bigger place," she said.
Pham Thi Huong, 60, from An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta, rents an apartment that spans 2 m in length and 1.5 m in width inside an alley of Le Dinh Can Street.
Huong said the rent costs VND650,000 a month. Her children have had their own families at their hometown, and due to precarious financial situations, she traveled to HCMC for work. But she is too old now for any company to hire her, so she can only do housework.
"Doing housework is not stable, so whenever the rent has to be paid, I have to scrape for whatever's left to sustain myself day by day," she said.
Like Huong, several workers at the alley are living in small houses spanning just 3-4 sq.m in order to save money.
About 30 km away from the rows of apartments in Binh Tan is another block near the Linh Trung free-trade zone of Thu Duc City, which is old and dilapidated.
Le My Phong, 40, has to open the doors to let fresh air in amid a hot sunny day. Phong, from Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam, said he works as a mechanic and rents a room for VND1.5 million a month, utilities included.
"The room is only for sleeping, so I rent whichever is cheapest," he said.
A few hundred meters from Phong's place is the apartment of Nguyen Thi Nhu Ngoc, who has lived there for over a decade.
Ngoc, from Can Tho, said she went to HCMC to become a textile worker and has a family there. They now live in an apartment spanning 5 sq.m, with a monthly rent of VND1.5 million.
She and her husband have total monthly earnings at around VND10 million. But as both of their children are going to school, they want to rent a cheap place to save money.
Like Ngoc, 42-year-old Nguyen Quoc Hien and his wife, from Ha Tinh Province in central Vietnam, are raising two small children in an apartment spanning 15 sq.m.
Hien said the family has been living there for 15 years, and the rent is at VND2.5 million a month.
"I'm just happy that I have a stable place to stay," Hien said.
A row of rooms for rent for migrant workers in HCMC.
HCMC has over 60,000 private apartments for rent, according to the municipal construction department. Around one-fifth of them do not satisfy safety criteria however, such as requirements regarding minimum space available and fire safety. They would need to change that to continue operation, the department said.
The department has proposed for city authorities to have policies allowing landlords to borrow money with low interest rates so they can renovate and upgrade their apartments to meet the criteria.
