700 move into temporary Tokyo shelter for people without jobs, homes+

TOKYO, Dec. 31 Kyodo -
About 700 people who have lost their jobs and homes have moved into a temporary
shelter at the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center opened by the Tokyo
metropolitan government, metropolitan government officials said Thursday.

The number of visitors was much higher than the 500 people anticipated by the
metropolitan government, prompting the government to open a separate lodging
facility inside the center to provide meals and accommodation during the
year-end and New Year's holidays.
The move by the metropolitan government is aimed at avoiding the situation at
the end of 2008 when about 500 people without jobs and homes flocked to a tent
village built by antipoverty campaigners in Hibiya Park.
The action by the campaigners shed light on the problem that dispatch workers
housed in company dormitories have increasingly tended to lose their
accommodation when their employment contracts are terminated amid the recession
since the fall of 2008.
A 51-year-old man, who used to work at a food manufacturing factory as a
dispatch worker, went to the center on Monday after being forced out of an
apartment in August 2009 and staying in Internet cafes.
''I want to rearrange my life plan while I'm here,'' he said.
The center will be open through the morning of Jan. 4.
==Kyodo