「ぽたらか」の人々 徳本義明 

「People at "Potalaka"」  Yoshiaki Tokumoto





平尾弘衆さんは、理解不可能な人である。何を考えているか、その後何をするか正直誰もわからない今、話題の無料低額宿泊所「ぽたらか」を運営しているが、その入所者は身体の状態が良くない方ばかりです。
身体に障害のある方、脱走癖のある方、認知症が進んだ方等、ADLの低下した人々で、通常の施設では受け入れが困難な方々を引き受けています。これらの方々の介助には人手がかかるので、介助の人達は住む場所がなかったり、仕事がない人で、住まいと食事の提供があることでスタッフとして働いています。
入所者はADLの低下した人々なので、施設内で死亡することもまれではありません。そのため彼女は僧籍にあったので、自ら葬儀をおこなっています。多くの事柄で多少脱法ぎみではありますが、それを全く気にしないのは見事と言えるでしょう。
平尾弘衆さん、入寮者、スタッフの皆様の不思議な関係を、今後も撮影して行きます。

Ms. Kohshu Hirao is a very puzzling person.
It is impossible to tell what she's thinking and what she will do in the future is purely unpredictable.
She is running free shelter "Potalaka" now, free or cheap accommodation facility is a popular topic these days;however, all the people who stay in her shelter are in bad physical conditions. Disabled people, people with runaway tendency, people with progressed dementia, people with low ADL(Activities of Daily Living); those are people who are not accepted in normal facilities.
Running such a facility requires hands of many people.  The helpers are people who had no homes or jobs. They live and work in this shelter as staffs. Free food and bed are provided to the staffs in exchange for their work.

People in this shelter have lowered ADL, so it is not rare for them to die in this facility. Since she wasa nun before, she conducts funerals for them as well.
This is somewhat in gray zone from legal perspective, however, it is truly applaudable that she does not care about it at all.

I will continue to capture images of peculiar relationship between Ms. Kohshu Hirao, people at the shelter and the staffs.