Seoul City Provides Customized Free Home Repairs for 100 Low-Income Disabled Households

Support for households with income below 65% of median income... Customized home repairs reflecting individual household preferences
100 households supported this year, applications accepted through local community centers until the 18th

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 15th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will officially launch a customized home repair project this year in collaboration with Warm Companion to resolve daily inconveniences throughout the homes of 100 low-income individuals with severe disabilities and enable them to live safely.

Seoul selected 100 low-income households with severe disabilities and implemented a customized home repair project to resolve daily inconveniences throughout their homes and ensure safe living. As a result of the project, satisfaction with the residential environment (measured on a 7-point Likert scale) improved from 1.30 to 6.74. Since the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s housing convenience support project for people with disabilities began in 2009, a total of 1,554 households have received home repairs up to last year.

This year as well, Seoul will recruit applicants from the 16th of this month to the 18th of next month through the local community service centers of the applicants’ residential districts. The city will select 100 households considering disability grades and income levels, and conduct free home repair work over three months from August to November.

The home repair project involves a first on-site survey conducted by the responsible public officials at the local community service centers for the applicant households. The second on-site survey is carried out by Warm Companion, the executing organization, which forms two-person teams from March to May to visit each household and identify areas requiring priority improvement.

Based on the survey results, a selection committee composed of professors, experts, and Seoul city officials will comprehensively consider income levels, number of disabled household members, and other factors to select the final 100 households in May. Selected households will be revisited for customized design before construction begins in August.

In particular, to simplify the project procedures for residents of LH and SH rental housing, the city has coordinated with LH and SH headquarters so that the executing organization (Warm Companion) can collect repair consent forms in bulk, instead of residents individually obtaining approval from management offices. Additionally, 10 households with severe disabilities living in poor housing conditions will be designated as specialized households and receive up to 10 million KRW per household to further enhance their living environment.

The free home repair target households are those where the head of household or a household member is a person with a severe disability and a basic livelihood security recipient or a near-poverty household (with income below 50% of the median income). Near-poverty households include separate household beneficiaries under the National Basic Livelihood Security Act and low-income single-parent families (with income below 52% of the median). Those with income between 50% and 65% of the median may also apply if they bear part of the renovation costs.

Applications are possible if the homeowner permits the renovation and agrees to allow residence for at least one year after the project. Target households are selected considering disability type and severity, income level, and urgency of housing environment improvement.

Seoul attributes the high satisfaction among beneficiary households to the fact that home repairs actively reflect the behavioral characteristics of the disabled through joint on-site inspections by professors and experts based on the improvements desired by the disabled individuals themselves. Through individual household inspections, the types of indoor mobility are analyzed and classified into systems such as wheelchair use, walking aid use, sitting lifestyle, bedridden lifestyle, accompanied walking, and independent walking, followed by installation of convenience facilities tailored to each indoor mobility type.

For wheelchair users, construction work includes removing floor level differences and installing ramps at the house entrance and access paths. Additional support includes installing safety handrails, awnings, and other convenience features. In bathrooms, thresholds are removed to enable independent use of toilets and sinks, and non-slip tiles are installed on floors along with safety handrails on walls to ensure safety when accessing toilets or sinks.

Kim Geon-tak, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Disability Independence Support Division, stated, “Seoul will continue to promote housing convenience support projects for low-income individuals with severe disabilities to guarantee an environment where people with disabilities can live conveniently and safely, thereby supporting improvements in their quality of life.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.