[Report] "I Want to Live in a Real Home" People in Ssangbangbangchon Fighting Cold and COVID-19

Seoul Yongsan-gu Dongja-dong Gosiwon Facing Dual Hardships of Cold and Infectious Diseases
Redevelopment Stalled Due to Government and Owner Conflicts
COVID-19 Makes Life Harder for Gosiwon Residents
Lonely Deaths Increasing Among Single-Person Households

Alleyway in the Dongja-dong Goshiwon Village, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, visited on the 12th / Photo by Juhyung Lim skepped@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] "I thought the weather was warming up, but it’s getting cold again."

On the morning of the 12th, when the lowest temperature dropped to minus 12 degrees Celsius, Mr. A, a resident of the Dongja-dong jjokbang village in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, looked up at the sky with a sense of frustration. Due to the weather that day, the Han River and water pipes froze. The biting wind penetrated to the bone. Wrapped tightly in a shabby coat, scarf, and wool gloves, Mr. A lamented, "Winter seems harder than summer. When it’s hot, you can endure it, but when it’s cold, there’s no solution."

The jjokbang village is enduring a harsh winter amid the severe cold and the COVID-19 crisis. Behind the glamorous shopping districts and high-rise buildings of the metropolitan city of Seoul, there are poor residential areas lacking even basic heating facilities, let alone ventilation.

Many residents here live in poverty and receive government support. The government tried to promote public-led redevelopment to improve the residential environment in the jjokbang-dense areas, but it has reached a deadlock due to strong opposition from landlords who own nearby houses.

A banner opposing public development hanging in front of a jjokbangchon (small room village). Across the crosswalk next to the building, high-rise buildings of Seoul can be seen. / Photo by Juhyung Lim skepped@

The Dongjak-dong jjokbang-dense area is located right in the middle of the dazzling forest of buildings near Seoul Station. From a distance, it looks like a commercial area with ordinary restaurants, bakeries, and convenience stores, but once you enter the dim alleyways, the jjokbang village begins.

Passing by a banner that reads "Strong Opposition to Forced Land Expropriation for Seoul Station Dongja-dong Public Housing," the first things that caught the eye at the entrance of the jjokbang village were empty restaurants and the 'red flags' stuck between buildings.

When asked a resident sitting on the stairs about the purpose of the flags, he replied, "The landlords put them up," and added, "They say they oppose the redevelopment led by the government."

The conflict between Dongja-dong residents who want public redevelopment and landlords who oppose it was evident throughout the alleys. Slogans like "We want to live in a proper home too" and "Public Housing Project" were plastered on walls and house exteriors, while on the opposite side, red flags were invariably planted.

In the shantytown residential area, those in favor of public development and the opposing 'Red Flag' are confronting each other. / Photo by Juhyung Lim skepped@

Mr. B, in his 70s, who lives as a tenant in Dongja-dong jjokbang and runs a small shop, said, "If redevelopment happens, it would be good for residents. More people would come, and business would improve."

The entrance door of Mr. B’s shop was a sliding type, but it was old and didn’t close completely. Because of this, even on cold winter days, Mr. B had to operate his shop with the door half-open, wrapped in a blanket. Even Mr. B’s shop had a red flag hanging.

Flags hung by building owners in Dongja-dong to protest the government's public development policy / Photo by Juhyung Lim skepped@

Mr. B said, "People living here don’t really understand much about redevelopment. Everyone is just struggling to make ends meet day by day," adding, "Almost none of the residents are building owners; most are tenants. Among them, over 70% are basic livelihood security recipients."

◆Redevelopment Plan Faces Difficulties... Residents Exposed to Cold and COVID-19 Suffer 'Double Hardship'

Jjokbang refers to poor residential facilities in Korea formed around the 1960s. The rooms are so small that only one person can barely lie down, hence the name jjokbang. These rooms are tightly packed inside a building, and most sanitary facilities like showers and toilets are shared. Areas densely populated with such jjokbang buildings are called jjokbang villages.

Entrance to a densely packed one-room housing area. / Photo by Juhyung Lim skepped@

Currently, there are five jjokbang villages in Seoul: Donui-dong and Changsin-dong in Jongno-gu, Namdaemun 5-ga in Jung-gu, Yeongdeungpo, and Dongja-dong. Among these, the Yeongdeungpo jjokbang village announced a redevelopment plan in January last year and is currently pursuing the project.

Dongja-dong also had a redevelopment plan announced around the same time. Earlier, on February 5th last year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the "Public Housing and Urban Regeneration Project Plan to Improve the Residential Environment of Seoul Station Jjokbang Village." This project involves Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) and Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) developing 47,000 cubic meters in the Dongja-dong area from last year until 2030, supplying a total of 2,410 housing units. The plan also included relocating jjokbang residents to temporary complexes during development and resettling them after completion.

However, this plan soon faced obstacles. Actual owners of the jjokbang buildings in Dongja-dong opposed the public-led development, preferring private-led development. As conflicts escalated, the Dongja-dong Residents Countermeasure Committee held a relay one-person protest in front of Minister Noh Hyung-wook’s residence in August last year.

At the protest, Committee Chairwoman Oh Jeong-ja condemned the Ministry’s public-led development plan as "an attempt to seize Dongja-dong land under the pretext of the jjokbang village," stating, "Our committee was preparing a ‘warm coexistence development’ private development plan proposed by residents after consulting experts, but after a meeting, the Ministry said ‘private development is not possible’ and ‘designation as a public housing district is best,’ reversing their stance."

A corridor with small rooms. / Photo by Juhyung Lim skepped@

Meanwhile, Seoul jjokbang village residents remain fully exposed to the dangers of COVID-19 and the cold. The civic group "Homeless Action" investigated COVID-19 cluster infections among vulnerable housing groups for a month in November last year and found 57 infected cases in the Jongno-gu jjokbang village alone.

As the risk of infection increased and visits from volunteer groups decreased, tragic cases of solitary deaths among single-person households living in jjokbang continued unnoticed.

On the 28th of last month, a basic livelihood security recipient in his 40s, Mr. C, was found dead in a jjokbang village in Jongno-gu. The police responded to a report from a social worker who had lost contact with Mr. C and discovered his body at the scene. Investigations revealed that Mr. C died of acute cardiac arrest on Christmas Day, the 25th of last month.

Similarly, an 80-year-old resident, Mr. D, was found dead in a nearby goshiwon. Mr. D had lived alone in the goshiwon since losing contact with his family in 2016. The police handled the recovery of his body. Jongno-gu decided to conduct a "funeral for unclaimed deceased" (a funeral supported by local government for bodies without known relatives or contacts) for Mr. D.

Experts emphasize that to solve the poor residential environment problems faced by current jjokbang village residents, work equivalent to reconstruction is necessary.

Lee Dong-hyun, a standing activist of Homeless Action, pointed out, "Local governments have carried out various remodeling projects as part of jjokbang support projects before. However, since jjokbang buildings were built a long time ago, it is difficult to improve the quality of the residential environment with repair work alone."

He added, "Ultimately, work equivalent to reconstruction is needed, and to prevent the burden from falling on the vulnerable residents during this process, it should be promoted as a public project."