When Hannibal opens up the guy's eye and says he's an idiot, then later, Hannibal lifts up his glasses and reveals his eye. I couldn't understand what they said, what happened?
What the other poster said; as for Hannibal Chau's eyes, I'd say since he was talking about a 'public' shelter, he is implying it didn't protect him very well from a Kaiju attack, hence the scars on his face & the damaged eyeball?
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?
The reason that he had his own private refuge was because the first (and only) time was because that's where he lost his left eye. However, whether or not the injury was inflicted by a Kaiju or another human in the shelter is unknown.
I thought when Hannibal says "I tried it once." he meant he tried drifting with a kaiju and got his eye f_cked up but on reviewing the scene it looked more likely he meant the public shelter.