Evacuees not always entitled to alternative housing

March 13, 2015

Some evacuee families unable to get compensation for alternative housing

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150313p2a00m0na015000c.html

Some Fukushima nuclear disaster evacuees have been unable to get alternative housing recognized as evacuation destinations even though their current residences have become small for their growing families, it has been learned.

Local governments have largely differed in how they handle the issue, with the metropolitan area being stricter about allowing home changes, perhaps because of the more difficult housing situation there. For voluntary disaster evacuees and evacuees from areas that have had their evacuation orders lifted, however, whether or not they can get an alternative home compensated as their evacuation site ties directly into whether they can continue to live in evacuation housing or not, and they are strongly seeking the cooperation of government institutions.

One 32-year-old woman who evacuated from the city of Fukushima lives with her non-Japanese husband and four children in a Tokyo suburb. At the time of the disaster she was pregnant with her third child, and she fled to Tokyo out of concern for radiation effects on the children. In November last year she had her fourth child.

The home is 52 square meters in size. They do not have a table where the family can eat as one, and they can only place one study desk for the children. Every night, the woman sleeps together with three of the children. She has applied to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and other bodies to have an alternative home compensated as an evacuation site, but has been turned down because growth in family size does not constitute a reason for a new evacuation home under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's guidelines. She hears that radiation levels are still high around her home in Fukushima, and says, "I cannot let my children go there." She says, "I just have to raise the children while withstanding that we have nothing."

Another woman in her 50s who evacuated from the city of Fukushima lives in Kawasaki with her son in a one-room apartment. Just after the disaster, she found the apartment with the help of an acquaintance.

"First of all I just wanted a place to live. I didn't think I would be living here this long," she says. While her son uses the dining table for his studies, she uses the top of a cardboard box as a table to fill in school forms. They use the bathroom area to change clothes.

Since the summer of 2013, she has contacted the governments of Kanagawa Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to have an alternative home authorized for compensation, but she was turned down, with lack of space not being considered a sufficient reason for a change.

However, in January this year, she was called by an official with the Kanagawa Prefectural Government, who told her, "The landlord doesn't want to renew your contract. Please find an alternative home and leave your current one by the end of March." As a result, she will get another home recognized as her evacuation site.

"Why wouldn't they allow it until now? I wish they would think not just of the landlord but of the children as well," she said angrily.