When It Rains, Sewers Back Up... Seoul Provides Home Repair Support for Vulnerable Residents

Seoul City’s ‘Residential Safety Partnership Public-Private Cooperation Project’
Promoted with a Goal of 50 Households This Year

#An elderly couple in Dobong-gu, Seoul, lived in a semi-basement house for about 30 years and experienced flooding damage more than 10 times. When it rained, the veranda drainback flowed back, causing water to enter the house. To solve this problem, they received support from the Seoul Metropolitan Government to raise the veranda step by about 30cm, install windows, and place flood alarms at the drainback points. Along with this, a full renovation of the bathroom was carried out, including replacing the old front door, tiles, washbasin, toilet, and ventilation fan, as well as kitchen renovations such as replacing the sink and tiles.

A customized home repair support case for elderly households residing in Dobong-gu, Seoul. To prevent backflow, the veranda step was raised by 30cm and windows were installed. Photo by Seoul City

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is promoting the ‘Safe Housing Accompaniment Public-Private Partnership Project,’ which supports the improvement of housing environments for vulnerable groups, targeting 50 households this year in collaboration with private companies and non-profit organizations.

According to the city on the 25th, the ‘Safe Housing Accompaniment Public-Private Partnership Project’ has been implemented since 2022, and currently, 27 public and private organizations are cooperating to improve the housing environment for vulnerable groups. So far, home repairs such as insulation, waterproofing, wallpaper, and flooring replacements have been supported for 57 households. In particular, housing environment improvement construction support was completed before the rainy season for semi-basement houses at risk of flooding.

This project is promoted by the city selecting households to support, with private companies and organizations sponsoring construction costs and providing customized home repairs. This year, the target has been expanded not only to semi-basement houses but also to low-rise houses below the minimum residential area for vulnerable households (such as the elderly and disabled). Currently, through sponsorship funds from Seoul Guarantee Insurance (150 million KRW) and home repair sponsorship from the Korea Housing Construction Association Seoul Chapter, on-site measurements for construction are underway for 17 vulnerable households. Additionally, Hyundai Livart has agreed to provide beds and mattresses as additional support for households undergoing construction in the second half of this year.

During the home repair construction, a storage moving company provided a ‘free storage moving service,’ and experts from the Korea Storage and Organization Association donated their talents to support organizing consulting. Furthermore, various supports for stabilizing the living conditions of vulnerable households were provided, including direct construction and volunteer activities by company employees.

Han Byung-yong, Director of the Housing Office of Seoul City, said, “We will continue to promote housing environment improvement projects linked to companies’ ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) for housing vulnerable people living in poor conditions such as semi-basements, and also provide necessary support for stable housing life, such as volunteer organizing and organizing consulting. Since this project requires private sector interest and participation, we will establish cooperative relationships with more institutions to smoothly promote the project in the future.”