There is a brilliant weekly television programme in Japan called
"Gomi Yashiki" ("Garbage Houses") in which they do a similar sort
of thing: finding garbage houses, and then cleaning them up. They
also look at the reasons for which people have ended up in such
situations. Often, the back story is quite tragic.
Unlike the programmes that Stephanie mentioned, the houses on "Gomi
Yashiki" are real garbage houses - one episode featured a room that
was several centimetres deep in pigeon droppings; in another, a
woman was living in a space about 2m by 1m surrounded by bags full
of refuse.
The best aspect of the programme, though, is that the makers of the
programme persuade the garbage house owners to let them help clear
up the houses - often requiring them to earn the trust of the
owners. When they succeed in turning the houses back into places to
live, the happiness and gratitude of the subjects, most of whom had
long since given up on being able to sort out the chaos, is very
touching and heartwarming.
Although the programme could be seen as exploitative, the fact that
the faces and voices of the inhabitants are obscured goes a long
way in countering this potential problem. And it's really wonderful
to see what a positive difference can be made to people's lives.
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