Yongsan District Launches Comprehensive Support for Protection and Self-Reliance of Small Room Residents near Seoul Station

Promoting 19 Projects Across Five Key Areas

On June 26, the Yongsan District Office in Seoul announced that it is actively implementing the "2025 Yongsan District Support and Protection Measures for Residents of Small Rooms" to stabilize the lives of these residents and lay the groundwork for their self-reliance.

The district is focusing on resolving safety and welfare blind spots for 827 residents living in small room communities near Seoul Station, including Dongja-dong, Galwol-dong, and Huam-dong. It is currently carrying out 19 projects across five areas: safety management, healthcare, welfare support, and revitalization of self-reliance.

Heeyoung Park, mayor of Yongsan District (left), is visiting residents of small rooms to listen to their difficulties. Provided by Yongsan District.

From March to May, four departments of the district office jointly conducted safety inspections at 40 small room buildings. They closely checked for cracks, deformations, and detachment of finishing materials in major structural components. In addition, joint fire safety inspections were carried out once each in the first and second half of the year in cooperation with the Yongsan Fire Station and the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation and Korea Gas Safety Corporation. Residents also received training on evacuation procedures and instructions on how to use fire extinguishers.

In March, the district provided 30 residents with hands-on scenario-based disaster response training at the Boramae Safety Experience Center, covering fire, earthquake, and subway accident situations to strengthen their disaster response capabilities. The same training opportunity will be offered again in the second half of the year.

With the intensifying summer heat, the district has been implementing a "Special Protection Plan for Small Room Residents" from May 15 to October 15. In collaboration with the Seoul Small Room Counseling Center, the district has established on-site protection measures, including operating cooling shelters equipped with air conditioning and showers, providing drinking water, and installing ice makers.

In particular, intensive disinfection is being carried out in 63 densely populated small room areas, including applying mosquito larvicide twice a week. During heatwave hours, cultural activities such as film and humanities programs are held at cooling shelters, and public bathhouses are also used as resting places. The district has established a cooperative system with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, police, and fire departments to ensure thorough emergency response.

Customized programs for residents' mental health are also noteworthy. Since January this year, the district has been running the "Healthy Drinking Hope Project," which supports recovery from alcohol addiction through telephone counseling and self-help groups, as well as outdoor cultural activities and education on the prevention of alcohol-related harm.

Welfare counseling is conducted on-site. The Namyeong-dong Community Center holds a "Mobile Companion Welfare Counseling Room" in the lobby of the Seoul Station Small Room Counseling Center on the fourth Friday of every month. Two welfare planners work as a team to provide housing welfare consultations, issue application documents, and connect residents to welfare benefits. On the same day, hairdressing and home nursing services are also provided.

Projects to prevent solitary deaths, such as "Connecting Welfare for New Residents" and "Connecting Warmth with Vegetables," are also being actively promoted. The Connecting Welfare for New Residents project provides welfare information and, if necessary, links to social welfare services for single-person households newly moving into 63 small room buildings at the end of each month. Through the Connecting Warmth with Vegetables project, the district creates vegetable gardens in unused spaces and delivers the harvested vegetables to counseling centers or households living alone.

The district is also working to create jobs for small room residents. The "Small Room Village Doldaritgol Laundry" community job project is operated in the first and second half of the year, with priority given to hiring small room residents and homeless individuals as laundry business support staff.

Heeyoung Park, mayor of Yongsan District, stated, "Protecting the most vulnerable members of the community is the beginning of a healthy society," and added, "We will continue to expand an integrated support system that organically connects safety, welfare, healthcare, and self-reliance to improve the quality of life for small room residents."