"No Place to Go Because of Moderate Pain" Middle Class Trapped in Housing Blind Spots [Senior House]

[5-1] 'Health Status Medium, Economic Level Medium' Where Do I Belong?

Many Care Facilities for Elderly with Poor Health
Options Available Regardless of High or Low Economic Power

Korean Middle-Class Elderly Face Housing Blind Spots
Japan Popularizes Middle-Class Elderly Housing with Tax and Loan Benefits

"When I was young, I used to pull a cart around the market selling fruits and vegetables. After saving money, I bought a truck and ran my business with it. Rain or snow, I would take it out every morning at 7 a.m. That was enough to raise my four children and see them all married off, right? But now, just as I was thinking about taking a break and going on an overseas trip like everyone else, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. I found out during a health checkup two years ago. Fortunately, it was caught early, so I had surgery and recovered, and it doesn't affect my daily life. But last year, after losing my children's father, being alone at home became even harder. I worry about eating poorly and the cancer recurring. Do I have any income now? No. But I receive about 1 million won per month as allowance for my four children. I also get about 600,000 won from my pension. Is there a place where someone like me can live comfortably?" (Cha Bok-hee, 76, Paju, Gyeonggi Province)

There is currently no senior welfare housing in Korea for elderly people like Grandma Cha, who are in 'average health and middle economic status.' There are many nursing facilities nationwide for seniors in 'poor health' who must lie down all day or have dementia, allowing them to choose according to their circumstances. There are options for those with significantly low economic power (Korea Land and Housing Corporation's senior welfare housing) or very high economic status (luxury senior welfare housing).

Japan, which entered a super-aged society 18 years earlier than us, has well-established facilities for economically stable middle-class seniors. The 'service-provided senior housing' offers only essential assistance while lowering monthly rent to accommodate middle-class elderly residents. When the population of late elderly aged 75 and over surged, Japan fully revised the 'Elderly Housing Support Act' in 2011. They provided tax breaks and low-interest loans to encourage private companies to enter the senior housing market.

Since then, service-provided senior housing, affordable with the average monthly pension income of middle-class seniors, has become widespread. They also differentiated service levels based on health status to eliminate welfare blind spots. It is divided into 'general type,' where ambulatory seniors receive meals, safety checks, and life counseling, and 'kaigo type (nursing type),' which adds bathing and rehabilitation training for seniors who cannot move independently.

Park Mi-sun, head of the Housing Policy Research Center at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, said, "Unlike Japan, when you map out the target groups for senior housing policies in Korea, you can see a significant policy gap." This means there is no housing type for elderly people with 'average health and middle economic status.'

Demand for facilities like Japan's service-provided senior housing is growing in Korea's senior housing market as well. According to a survey by the Health Insurance Research Institute (2020, 4,000 people aged 55?74), when needing care, 52% preferred nursing facilities over staying at home (48%). Among nursing facilities, respondents who chose 'senior housing' said the most important conditions were 'affordable with monthly living expenses in old age (31%)' and 'providing continuous care services (20%).'