"Yoseba" and the Right to Housing of the Homeless

Yoseba and the daily-employed workers

Yoseba is a place where daily-employed, single and male workers, find their jobs through brokers. Most of their jobs are heavy physical labor in the field of construction and public works. Yoseba is also community where daily-employed workers stay in crowded lodgings for day laborers. The recent characteristics of Yoseba are summarized as follows:

1. The age of daily-employed workers has become old. The average years of age of daily-employed workers is mid-50 years old.
2. The number of jobs had decreased due to 1) recession of the Japanese economy, 2) change of the Japanese labor market, from labor intensive works to knowledge intensive works.
3. The price of lodging houses have become higher because of 1) the renewal and renovation of them, 2) sudden rise of the Japanese land prices.

The problems of recent daily-employed workers in respect to their housing are the following:

1. The income of the daily-employed workers decreased because of the decrease in jobs and working days. In addition, it became more difficult for the elder daily-employed workers to take physically demanding jobs. Illegal brokers and exploitation of workers still exist.
2. The rise of price in the lodging houses gives daily-employed workers an additional burden. This tendency classified daily-employed workers into two strata, those who can afford to stay at lodging houses and those who can not and sleep outside.
3. The government measures concerning daily-employed workers have three problems. Firstly, daily-employed workers are required to submit a resident card when they apply for unemployment insurance and receive the insured amount. Therefore, those who cannot register their residence at lodging houses can not receive service of unemployment insurance. Secondly, a resident card is also required to receive services for the protection of their livelihood. Those who can not register their residence can not receive the services. Thirdly, livelihood protection services can be provided for only those staying at hospitals and welfare institutions, and not for those staying at home, with a exception of Kotobuki-cho, Yokohama city. All these problems of the present government measures give unfair conditions to the aged, sick and weak daily-employed workers, who need those services mostly.

Proposed Measures

The following measures should take n by the government and local governments:

1. Special measure providing jobs for unemployed workers should be taken. This measure is implemented in Sanya, Tokyo and Kamagasaki, Osaka, but the number of jobs is small and wages are low. The government should guide construction companies to employ more daily-employed workers for public projects.
2. The government should guide owners of lodging houses to put a stop in the rise of the price. The local government should start and improve special measure to protect the right to housing of daily-employed workers, such as providing staying tickets for needy workers, already implemented in Kotobuki-cho, Yokohama city.
3. The requirement of submitting a resident card and an identification card in applying for unemployment insurance and in receiving insured amount should be banned.
4. The livelihood protection should be applied for those staying at home. In particular, it should be unconditionally applied in the case of emergency such as sickness.
5. The livelihood protection should also be applied when the needy workers stay at lodging houses.
6. The number of institutions where needy workers can receive services according to their needs should be increased. Low price apartments for single workers should be provided.
7. Emergency livelihood and medical measures, particularly tentative lodging houses for needy workers in winter should be improved.
8. The participation of daily-employed workers and community based organizations (CBO) in the process of planning and implementing the above-mentioned measures should be encouraged.

The Situation of the Homeless

Recently, the homeless are often seen in Japanese cities. The number of homeless are increasing. The reasons for the increasing number of the homeless include bankruptcy due to the recession of the Japanese economy, dismissal from work, rapid decrease of the number of daily jobs, companies' demand for a cheap foreign work force, failure to adjust to change by the Japanese labor market, personal troubles in family and or in community, and a failure to adapt to hospitals and welfare institutions. The number of the homeless is estimated more than 10,000 not only in Tokyo but in most of the cities. The characteristics of the homeless is as follows:

1. Most of the homeless are or used to be daily-employed workers. The attribution of the homeless is various. But a large number of the homeless are single.
2. The average age of the homeless is getting older, although a part of the homeless is made up of the young generation.
3. Because of the rapid decrease of jobs, change in the labor market and advanced age of the daily-employed workers, those who became homeless stay homeless. The stratum of the homeless is formed.

The issues faced by the homeless are common to the ones faced by the daily-employed workers obliged to stay outside, such as small number of jobs, difficulty for applying for livelihood protection services, the small number of protection and correction institutions, and inadequate emergency medical and livelihood measures, particularly during the winter. In addition to these problems, discrimination and prejudice against the homeless is very strong. It is often the case with the homeless to be attacked by citizens, mainly by teenagers. These problems are particularly very hard for the elderly and sick. the central government and local governments are responsible for all these problems.

Infringement of the right to housing of the homeless

One of the big problems among the homeless is eviction. The most recent case happened in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Administration evicted 200 homeless living in the basement passage at Shinjuku railway station with 1,000 members of riot police, guards and officers of the local government on 24 January 1996. The purpose of the eviction was to construct a moving passage from the station to the government office complex spending 300 million yen (3 million US dollars).

The eviction of the homeless raises the issue of the right to housing of the homeless as human beings. In the name of public welfare, based on the Roads Transportation Law and the Park Law, the Japanese government and the local governments have enforced eviction of the homeless from parks, roads and drains with police force and accommodated them in the tentative shelters and correction institutions. But eviction is a violation of the right to housing of those who are obliged to live in a certain space with their properties. The resolution N0.77 of the UN Human Rights Committee says clearly that eviction is the violation of the fundamental human rights, which "would deteriorate situation of being homeless by removing persons, families, groups from their families and communities against their will."

Since the situation of the homeless varies from person to Person, the needs of the homeless also varies. Some need to be hospitalized and also wish to be. Others can live on the road and wish to do. Others sometimes need to be hospitalized/institutionalized and sometimes do not need to according to their physical, livelihood and seasonal conditions. It is not reasonable to institutionalize the homeless to the shelters and institutions arbitrarily without finding each one's needs.

It is required for governments to respect their will for housing and to improve measures to be able to meet their needs. They should not evict them with an exception that it is necessary to save their lives and that the homeless heavily obstruct the function of the community. This basic idea should be formed by governments. The governments should learn a lot from experiences of demolition of the squatters and arguments concerning the right to housing in the developing countries.

Lastly, research should be carried out to clarify the situation of the homeless and their needs so that Present measures are to be improved and implemented more effectively. Educational programs should also be promoted in order to solve strong prejudice among citizens against the homeless. Very few activities 'in this field are taken at present.