The cabinet approved on Sunday a proposal by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver to use "long term rentals" at the Jewish Agency for Israel's absorption centers to solve housing problems for aging and single-parent olim (immigrants). Under the proposal, 650 units in absorption centers will be offered to the two groups of immigrants, who will be able to chose locations from Nazrat Ilit (Upper Nazareth) to Be'er Sheva.
The olim will receive hundreds of shekels of expanded rental assistance, making their out-of-pocket expenses NIS150-250 a month. The cost to taxpayers is estimated at nine million shekels a year for five years, in addition to NIS seven million in renovations to adapt the apartments for the aging and single parent immigrants. The Jewish Agency is spending 12 million shekels on the renovations.