Activists in Japan are looking to turn Tokyo’s newly constructed Olympic Village into a homeless shelter after the 2020 summer games were postponed until July 2021.
“We don’t know how long this downturn will last, and so we have to change how we think,” Ren Ohnishi, chairperson of the Moyai Support Center for Independent Living, said. “That includes how we work, how we deal with housing, how we give aid to those who need it.”
The massive construction along the banks of Tokyo Bay was originally designed to fit more than 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Grand plans, however, were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and last month the International Olympic Committee officially put the games on hold.
Ohnishi and others have circulated a petition, now signed by tens of thousands, calling on city and Olympic officials to green-light the idea. “If the outbreak continues for some time, many people may fall into poverty or lose their homes,” the petition reads.
Reps for Tokyo Olympic organizations and the city government both had no comment on the proposal.
With Post wires