Qualitative research of Housing First in Japan

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K02043
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 08010:Sociology-related
• Research Institution: Nihon University
• Principal Investigator: YAMAKITA Teruhiro 日本大学, 文理学部, 教授 (50579109)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: ハウジング・ファースト / 野宿者支援

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Housing First is a support project aiming to provide immediate residence to chronically homeless people in developed countries around the world. However, Housing First has been criticized for its complicity with neoliberalism. This study aimed to reconsider this complicity by critically focusing on three dimensions of neoliberalism: ideologies, governmentalities, and policies. Our reexamination of the Housing First government initiative in Tokyo indicates that the concepts of homelesszero, self-responsibility, and cost reduction have indeed demonstrated complicity. Furthermore, this study explores an alternative method of supporting homeless people based on the innovative logic of the Housing First initiative that avoids complicities and identifies Housing First as a social movement for the homeless in Tokyo. This study reveals circulation, dialog, and universalization as essential for the radical Housing First social movement.

Free Research Field

社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ハウジング・ファーストの効果をめぐるエビデンスはおもにランダマイズ比較試験をもちいた量的調査が世界的に主流である。それに対して本研究は、当事者のライフヒストリーや、支援団体と出会うまでの経緯と現在のアパートでの地域生活の経験・効果を質的調査から明らかにすることが特徴である。またハウジング・ファーストの質的調査に関しては社会福祉からのアプローチが存在論的安心の観点から行われているが、本研究は社会学的な観点からNPOによるハウジング・ファースト実践とネオリベラリズムの共振問題を見据えながら、質的データを考察した点に独創性がある。