Private sector is the key to homeless problem

Rosanne Haggerty

Japan must make collective efforts to house a growing homeless population by creating incentives for the private sector to pitch in, said Rosanne Haggerty, director of a New York-based nonprofit organization working to create shelters for homeless people.

"Housing is an indispensable part of human life, and providing shelters is a starting point to help the homeless out of desperation and to rejoin society," said Haggerty, who organizes Common Ground, which has provided shelters to over 1,850 homeless and poverty-stricken people in New York.

"What is remarkable about the homeless problem here is the government and public indifference to solving the issue, which has already become so visible in cities across the country," Haggerty said during a recent visit here at the request of the Japan NPO Center.