The city of Seoul views single-person households, which account for about 40% of all households, as independent living units and completely revamps its policy system to support all aspects of life, including housing and safety, health and care, economic independence, and prevention of social isolation.
Previously, the focus was on the concept of a 'social family' that forms a network of relationships with neighbors, but in the future, the intention is to subdivide and support the realities and policy demands of single-person households, which have become more diverse, including young people, middle-aged people, and the elderly.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 4th that on the 1st, it had promulgated a complete revision to the 'Seoul Metropolitan City's Basic Ordinance on Supporting Single-Person Households' containing these contents and began implementing it.
This revision is a complete reorganization, revising and converting the concept of single-person households in the existing ordinance and changing the name to 'Seoul Metropolitan City's Basic Ordinance on Support for Single-Person Households.'
The city explained the reason for the revision, saying, "As single-person households in Seoul account for approximately 40% of all households, and their composition has become more diverse from young people to middle-aged and elderly people, it has become difficult to sufficiently reflect complex needs such as housing, safety, health, care, and economic independence with policies focusing only on forming existing social relationships."
This ordinance contains the basis for providing customized support to single-person households living in Seoul as the basic support target.
However, in cases where support is needed in accordance with a single-person household, such as a person temporarily living alone, support is provided as determined by rules.
The support areas were also specified. Areas of support included stabilization of housing such as rental contract consultation and on-site accompaniment, care such as health management and disease and loneliness prevention, crime prevention and daily safety such as installation of safety equipment and safe return home, and support for forming social networks and social participation.
Through this, it is now possible to support dietary and cultural leisure programs such as cooking classes, economic education and customized job connections, emotional care such as psychological counseling, and living environment improvement projects.
In particular, rather than providing equal support to all single-person households, priority was given to single-person households with the greatest need for support, taking into account the degree of social isolation, economic conditions, age, and health status.
The policy establishment process has also been more systemized than before.
It was decided to establish a basic plan to support single-person households every five years and prepare an implementation plan every year.
We have established a mechanism to ensure responsible support from planning to follow-up management by evaluating the results of the previous year's policy implementation, reflecting it in the next year's plan, and reporting the implementation performance to the city council.
In addition, a survey of single-person households is conducted every five years to identify age, gender, region, housing type and income, health, care, social isolation, policy demands, etc., and reflect this in the basic plan and implementation plan. If necessary, regular investigations are also conducted.
The role of Seoul’s single-person household regional support center was also clarified.
The center develops and distributes support projects and programs, and supports the operation of autonomous district support centers and employee training. In addition, it is responsible for cooperation between autonomous district centers, connection to private resources, analysis of project performance, and connection to high-level and complex counseling cases.
Facility and project expenses can also be supported for the establishment and operation of a single-person household support center in an autonomous district.
A city official said, "By evaluating the performance of each autonomous district, we have established a new basis for providing administrative and financial support to excellent autonomous districts," and added, "We will establish and implement a support policy that suits the reality of single-person households."
