January 17, 2013
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2013 January 16 - 22 [WELFARE]
Kobe Earthquake victims fight against local governments’ relocation order |
On January 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake damaged about 470,000 houses. Disaster-stricken Hyogo Prefecture and its cities like Kobe and Nishinomiya provided 42,000 public housing units to the victims. Of them, 7,700 were rented from private institutions and the Urban Renaissance Agency (UR), an incorporated administrative agency.
The prefectural and city governments require 5,400 families, who are now living in municipal-rented housing units, to move to other places because the lease contracts on the units will expire between 2015 and 2023.
A 65-year-old man lives in a public housing unit located in Kobe’s Nada district. The city leased the unit from UR with a 20-year contract. When the man moved into the unit, he was given no explanation about the contract from the city. In 2011, however, he suddenly received from the city office a notice calling on him to find another house before the city’s occupancy of the unit will end in 2020. He will find it extremely difficult to relocate due to his wife’s illness and the nursing care services his mother receiving.
Not only in Kobe City but also in other cities in Hyogo Prefecture, residents of municipal-rented housing have formed a group to protest against the forcible relocation requests from their local governments. They petitioned to the central government and waged a sit-in protest in front of the Nishinomiya City government office building.
JCP assemblypersons in the prefecture and each city called on respective governments to withdraw their relocation requests to the residents. JCP member of the House of Councilor Yamashita Yoshiki in a Diet discussion in June 2012 also took up the matter.
Amid protests from the residents, Kobe Governor Ido Toshizo at the end of last year expressed his intention to extend lease contracts of prefecture-rented housing units where elderly and disabled disaster victims are living. Kobe City on January 10 announced that it will establish a panel to consider extension of lease contracts of city-rented housing units and on measures for those who have difficulty in relocation.
A representative of the residents’ group in Kobe said, “The city government has started to listen to our demands. This is a big first step. The city should allow us to join the panel.”
Related past article:
> Survivors of Kobe Earthquake fear for losing houses [January 17, 2011]
> After 17 years, Hanshin-Awaji quake victims still suffering [January 17, 2012]
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