Homelessness and Community Attitudes in South Korea as Compared with Japan

Abstract

This paper is based on the analysis of data from two surveys (one is of 225 homeless people in Busan, South Korea and the other is of 582 citizens in Busan, South Korea and Fukuoka, Japan). This paper examines four issues regarding homelessness in South Korea: the characteristics of homeless people, the causes of the length of homeless careers, the process of homelessness, and community attitudes towards homelessness. In order to explore community attitudes towards homelessness, we conducted a comparative study between South Korea and Japan. Our major findings are as follows. First, the street homeless people have longer stretches of homelessness, have higher percentages of people coming from the working class in total, have more cases of unstable mental health, and better adapt to homelessness than sheltered homeless people. Second, the homeless people who have had more years of education and have a higher percentage of time worked after the first job have shorter lengths of homeless careers. Homeless people who better adapt to the street have longer lengths of homeless careers. Third, the period between job loss and leaving the home is very short. The high prevalence of 'never return to the home' is a characteristic of the residential trajectories of homeless people. Finally, South Koreans have more positive attitudes towards homelessness, considering structural conditions to be the main cause of homelessness. Japanese have more negative attitudes towards homelessness, assuming personal problems to be the main cause.