Promotion of Health and Welfare Projects for Single-Person Households in Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu

Providing Meal Support, Social Network Formation, Housing Improvement Services, Psychological Counseling, and Employment Support Programs

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gwanak-gu is promoting the 'Community-Based Health and Welfare Support Project for Single-Person Households' to prevent complex difficulties such as social isolation and solitary deaths among single-person households in Daehak-dong.

As of the end of December 2021, Gwanak-gu is a district with a high proportion of single-person households, accounting for about 60% of all households (164,000 single-person households out of 276,000 total households).

In particular, Daehak-dong is a representative area densely populated with one-room apartments and officetels, where the proportion of single-person households (12,191 households) reaches 75.4% of all households (16,164 households). Among them, young adults and middle-aged to older adults account for 62.2% and 33.2%, respectively.

Many of these single-person households face complex difficulties such as poor living environments, long-term unemployment, and health problems, and suffer from social isolation and hardships due to weak social networks.

Accordingly, the district is promoting the 'Community-Based Health and Welfare Support Project for Single-Person Households' to address the issues of single-person households in Daehak-dong.

First, through a public contest, a specialized project implementation agency with a good understanding of local characteristics and rich experience in similar tasks will be selected to operate a 'Public-Private Joint Task Force' to jointly consider local problems and seek policy solutions.

The plan is to identify low-income single-person households in welfare blind spots, develop programs tailored to the characteristics of Daehak-dong, and actively respond to the complex social problems they face by improving their independent living skills, strengthening residents' response capabilities, and enhancing their autonomy.

Main projects include ▲ providing lunchboxes & meal kits ▲ supporting social network formation ▲ housing counseling and housing improvement services ▲ health and psychological counseling, exercise programs ▲ employment, job opportunities, and education and training. In addition, private resources needed by single-person households will be actively developed and linked to expand service support areas.

Through satisfaction surveys and performance sharing meetings with participants, plans will be made to improve support measures for single-person households and establish an integrated support system.

A district official said, “As the number of single-person households increases, developing customized policies is important to improve quality of life and actively respond to welfare needs. Based on diverse experiences from both public and private sectors, we will do our best to discover and promote various policies that can bring changes to the lives of single-person households.”

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