The Homeless of the Present

In April, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published a report on a nationwide survey on the situation of the homeless. According to observations conducted along with the survey, the number of homeless people across the country as of January 2007 totaled 18,564, a drop of 6,732, or 26.6 percent, from the figure marked in the previous survey in 2003. By prefecture, the figure is highest in Osaka, 4,911, followed by 4,690 in Tokyo and 2,020 in Kanagawa: naturally enough, a great number of homeless people are found in metropolitan areas. 30.7 percent live in parks; 30.4 percent by river beds; 16.82 percent on roads; 4.9 percent in railway stations; and 17.2 percent in other facilities.

Interviews conducted among some 2,000 homeless people show that those aged 50 - 59 accounted for 42.7 percent of all people with no permanent home; those aged 60 - 64 for 21.2 percent; and those aged 40 - 49 for 10.6 percent. The average age was 57.5, higher by 1.6 years of age than the figure marked four years earlier.

Regarding time spent on the streets, 16.8 percent of the people surveyed had been homeless for one year or longer but fewer than three years; 18.9 percent for three years or longer but fewer than five years; 25.8 percent for five years or longer but fewer than 10 years; and 15.6 percent for 10 years or longer. As much as 41.4 percent of the people surveyed had been on the streets for five years or longer.

Some 50 percent of the homeless people surveyed had been engaged in construction work prior to their life as street dwellers. Among them, 43.2 percent had been regular employees; 26.2 percent day workers; and 19.4 percent part-time workers. As for their reasons for ending up living on the streets, the majority, 31.4 percent, said that the amount of work available had dropped, followed by "bankruptcy of their company or loss of job" (26.6%), and "inability to continue working because of illness, injury, or old age" (21.0%).

Although 70.4 percent of the homeless people surveyed answered that they had a job, their average monthly income was a mere 40,000 yen or so; a vast majority simply engaged in unstable work such as the collection of beer cans and other waste materials (75.5%). While 50.2 percent of the people interviewed complained of their poor physical condition, 65.8 percent of them were not receiving medical treatment.

If the number of homeless people has fallen due to the economic recovery, as suggested by this survey, all the better. Even so, regarding possible future independence, it was a considerable surprise that the survey also revealed that 59.8 percent of those surveyed did not search for jobs at all (a mere 19.6 percent did), and that 18.4 percent answered that they felt there was no problem with the way they were living.