Athletic Event costs 9 people their homes

Homeless people and their supporters clashed with Osaka Municipal Government workers and hired guards Monday as the city began forcibly removing tents and huts set up by homeless people in Nagai Park.

A total of about 550 people, including some 260 municipal government workers, moved in on Monday morning to remove tents belonging to nine homeless people remaining in the park in Higashisumiyoshi-ku, as over 100 supporters of the homeless protested.

In August this year, the world athletics championships are due to be held in Nagai Stadium in Osaka, and the municipal government had ordered the park to be cleared so that work such as installing street lights could be performed.

At about 8:30 a.m. on Monday city workers and guards set up a barricade around the southwest end of the park where a group of tents were located. At 9 a.m., they read out a notice declaring the removal of objects illegally occupying space in the park, and began forcibly removing the tents.

As workers moved in, the homeless people and supporters tried to resist the workers by forming a human chain, but by noon the removal was nearly completed.

In January last year city officials had forcibly removed tents in Osaka-jo Park in the city’s Chuo-ku and Ustubo Park in Nishi-ku. In October the same year, the municipal government started recommending that the homeless people in Nagai Park leave the park and move into facilities operated by the municipal government. City officials said that in October there were 24 homeless people living in the park, and that 28 tents and huts had been set up there, but since then, 15 of the people had moved into apartments, hospitals or other facilities after receiving public assistance.

People who remained in the park said they had been able to support themselves for a long time through activities such as collecting empty cans. They argued that they would lose their freedom in a municipal government facility, and that even if they did enter a facility, they would be sent away after a fixed period of time.

Prior to the removal of the tents, a local nonprofit organization opposing the city’s actions had sent a petition to the municipal government requesting that it hold off its plans to remove the tents. A group of about 250 young research volunteers from the Kansai district had also issued a declaration opposing the forced removal, saying the municipal government was acting heavy-handedly by forcibly removing the tents at a time when it should be helping people become independent.

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By Sun Tzu on 05-02-2007