Feed the homeless, but don’t do it in my neighborhood – okay?
With Japan’s economy is an ever-worsening state, charitable organizations that give free meals to the homeless have seen a huge increase in the demand for their services. However, as this video clip shows, the presence of large crowds of homeless people near meal distribution points has created friction between the organizations and local residents:
In the video we are shown footage of a meal distribution day at St. John’s Anglican Church, Asakusa. When the church began giving out free meals eight years ago, it would only need to prepare about 50 meals each time. The demand has since grown, and now they are preparing 500 meals on each distribution day.
People who live nearby aren’t very happy about having hundreds of homeless people hanging out in their neighborhood. They have made official complaints about the behavior and manners of those who come for the free meals. It is very common for the homeless men to sit on the street in front of houses and litter has become a big problem.
With people gathering this weekend at parks across the country for cherry blossom viewing parties, many will come into contact with the homeless who live in such parks. There have already been news reports from Shiga Prefecture about how the sight of unemployed people gathering for free meal distribution is getting in the way of hanami celebrations.
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