People uprooted from their homes after the March 2011 disasters and now living in state-subsidized rental housing in Sendai say they will need continued support from the government after funding for the program ends next spring, a survey by a Sendai-based nonprofit organization has found.
Although 51 percent of the residents surveyed want to remain in the properties, 93 percent said they cannot afford full-market rent, the research showed.
Rather than purpose-built, prefabricated units used as temporary homes for many of the evacuees, the residents surveyed live in quasi-temporary housing under a system whereby authorities rent properties from the private sector and let them to evacuees at concessionary rates or for free.