On 21st March 2019, Dr Yasushi Sukenari (University of Tokyo) arranged for the team to visit two organisations to provide housing and related services for homeless people in Tokyo.
First, the team met with Ms Akiko Takeishi, the Co-ordinator of the Housing First Tokyo Project. The project consists of a consortium of 7 partner organisations working to provide better access to housing, medical care and community services for vulnerable people, through a range of outreach initiatives and day support centres.
Secondly, the team met with Mr Tsuyoshi Inaba, the Director of the Tsukuroi Tokyo Fund. The programme provides homeless people with services such as temporary housing and help with job applications. One of their main activities is the cafe Shio no Michi, of which Mr Inaba is the director. The cafe is run by volunteers and formerly homeless people and is situated in a formerly vacant property that the Tsukuroi Tokyo Fund were able to acquire. As well as running the cafe, volunteers roast their own coffee.
Similarly, through crowd-funding, Mr Inaba was able to acquire 7 vacant rooms in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward (renting the rooms from the property landlord), establishing private rooms for homeless people equipped with necessary items for daily living.
The field trip highlighted both the issue of vacant property and property abandonment in Tokyo, and the ways in which charities and similar stakeholders are working to bring such properties back into use in order to support homeless and vulnerable people.