Key Activities
and specific plans to prevent elderly suicide, including mental health programs and visiting health
services targeting senior citizens.
K. Institutional Improvement Recommendation for the Rights of People
Living in Non-Dwelling Facilities
On December 31, the Commission recommended the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and
Transport to take the following actions with a view to promoting the rights of people who live in
poor housing conditions: to specify the target year and develop an implementation plan to increase
housing supply under the Guidelines on Housing Support for People in Vulnerable Housing
Situations; to change the surface area and facility criteria in the minimum living standards in
line with changing household composition, living conditions, and international standards, and to
make for more specific and measurable structural, performance, and environmental criteria; to
set the minimum surface area and facility criteria for gosiwon (low-cost, cramped single-room
type accommodation) to meet proper living conditions and to have those that fail to meet the new
standards come up with improvement plans.
The human rights of people exposed to poor living conditions have emerged as a social issue,
with petitions filed with the Commission demanding support to redress the situation. The petitions
were triggered by several incidents, including the deaths and injuries resulting from a fire in a
gosiwon and the threats to life and health facing residents of jjokbang (rooms smaller than 2 square
meters that don’t require a deposit to stay in) in times of heat waves in the summer.
According to the Census Bureau, the number of households living in non-residential facilities
such as hotel/motel rooms, shacks, greenhouse, or gosiwon increased rapidly, from 54,000 in 2005
to 360,000 in 2015. Some residential facilities such as semi-basement homes, basement homes,
and rooftop rooms are also in poor conditions. The number of households residing in a facility
that is below the minimum living standard (announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure
and Transport) was 1.11 million in 2018. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing expressed concerns about
the poor living conditions of these facilities and recommended the government to improve the
situation.
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