Tokyo and nine other prefectural governments plan to lease about 500 rooms during the new year and yearend holidays from inns, company dormitories and other facilities to accommodate people who have recently lost their housing, it was learned Wednesday.
But that is significantly less than the welfare ministry's initial target of 2,700 rooms nationwide, apparently because local governments feared that having too many rooms might attract jobless or homeless people from nearby areas, ministry sources said. The rooms will be paid for as part of the government's measures to deal with high unemployment.
In addition, some 160 municipal governments will open temporary consultation counters for people in need from Sunday through Jan. 3.
The Tokyo government will lease 170 rooms, in addition to operating a public shelter at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Shibuya Ward, which can accommodate several hundred people.