sort of - most of the people there also didn't have good options to leave. I suspect most would leave if given a better option. Note however that better option needs to somehow include your friends and family.
When I say “free” and “uninhibited”, I am talking only about the mind playing with fantasy, not the actual lived experience of residents
And the resulting pest presence yes. Yuck :)
>Medical and dental care were no problem at all: many of the residents were doctors and dentists with Chinese qualifications and years of experience but lacking the expensive pieces of paper required to practise in the colony. They set up their neat little clinics in the City, oases of cleanliness and order, and charged their patients a fraction of what they would pay outside.
Source: City Of Darkness: Life In Kowloon Walled City (1993)