Some reads on the floods aftermath: Seoul City to phase out semi-basements as dwellings, etc.
Earlier this week, two days of the heaviest rainfall in 80 years battered Seoul and its surrounding areas, killing 13 people, with six people still remained missing, Korea is debating how to handle future floods of this size. Stars like Kim Hye-soo, Han Ji-min, Park Jin-young, Yim Si-wan and Kang Tae-oh have donated to victims of the floods, but how could casualties be or have been prevented in the first place? Below the cut some reads on the aftermath of the floods, particularly focused on Seoul City's plan to phase out semi-basiments as housing, and what consequences this will have for people living in poverty and Seoul's housing crisis.
Please visit the sources for pictures and note that these pictures and some of the descriptions of the floods and the living situation of the inhabitants in these texts can be quite graphic.
Seoul City to phase out semi-basements as dwellings
by Lee Hyo-Jin for The Korea Times
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is planning to phase out the use of semi-basements as dwellings as a number of people living in semi-basement flats were killed when Seoul was hit with torrential rains and flooding, underscoring the vulnerability of those in poor living conditions.
Seoul and its surrounding areas were pounded with record-breaking rainfall for two straight days from Monday, before the rains moved to other parts of the country, resulting in 10 dead and 8 missing (OP note: as of August 11, the number increased unfortunately today), as well as major damage to thousands of homes, shops, cars and farmland, so far.
[Read more]
A family of three living in Sillim-dong, Gwanak District of Seoul was found dead in their semi-basement home after becoming trapped there when water gushed down into the flat through a sinkhole in the adjacent road.
A 50-something woman living with her mother in a semi-basement flat in Sangdo-dong, Dongjak District, was also killed in the flood. The two initially managed to escape from their home, but the younger woman later drowned after she returned to rescue her pet cat, according to the police.
These tragic incidents have highlighted the need to protect those in vulnerable living conditions.
Semi-basement ("banjiha" in Korean) flats, refer to homes that are built halfway below ground level. Originally required to be built in each building in the 1960s as air-raid shelters, in the 1970s, the building code was amended and the spaces became an affordable housing option for low-income urban dwellers. With minimal light and airflow through small windows, the often damp and moldy homes are especially prone to damage in floods.
According to 2020 census data, 327,000 households were living in such flats across the country, accounting for 2 percent of the total households. Of them, the vast majority ― 96 percent ― were residing in Seoul and its surrounding areas.
After heavy rains in 2010, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, announced that it would restrict building permits to buildings with semi-basement housing, and since then, permits have been restricted to buildings with basement-level residential spaces that face concerns of flooding.
Now, following this week's tragic deaths in semi-basement dwellings, Seoul city has announced that it will gradually phase out such housing.
The city government will consult with the central government to revise the Building Act, which regulates construction to semi-basement apartments for residential purposes.
It will also gradually encourage residents currently living in semi-basement flats to move out in the span of 10 to 20 years. Owners will be subsidized for remodeling or will be offered an option to sell the property to the city authorities.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also vowed to come up with measures to better protect the vulnerable group.
"We will review fundamental measures to protect the safety and lives of people living in poor conditions," said land minister Won Hee-ryong on Tuesday during his visit to the neighborhood in Dongjak District where the 50-something woman died.
But some civic groups are critical that these moves are only a repeat of previous efforts that were to no avail. They have also expressed concern that the restrictions may further reduce housing options for low-income households.
"In order for them (residents living in semi-basement flats) to move out of their current homes, there has to be a sufficient supply of public rental housing. Also, the government should first conduct a large-scale investigation on their living conditions before introducing counter measures," Choi Eun-young, head of the Korea Center for City and Environment Research (KOCER), was quoted as saying during an interview with local radio TBS, Thursday.
‘Where would I go?’: Seoul’s underground dwellers see few options
by Kim Arin for The Korea Herald (see pics at the source)
Seoul is banning subterranean living spaces after a series of deaths due to flooding. Over the last three days of downpour, a child and three adults drowned in their semi-basement homes, known as “banjiha.”
Seoul announced Wednesday that in the next two decades, it would phase out all forms of underground residences that are home to about 5 percent of all families in the city.
Mayor Oh Se-hun said in a press release that banjiha homes were “residential structures that threaten the safety of their occupants” and that they needed to be abolished.
“This is going to be a long-term project for improving the safety of homes across the city,” he said.
But for many of the banjiha dwellers, leaving is not an option.
[Read more]
Sohn Mal-nyeon, 77, has been living in her two-room basement unit in Seoul’s southern central Dongjak since her daughter, now 51, was a toddler. Two months ago, her husband moved to a nursing home in Namyangju, about an hour’s drive away, leaving her to live by herself.
She said that on the first night of the downpour, the local community service center called and asked her to spend the night there with some of her neighbors who had to flee their homes.
“I didn’t go. I was trying to keep the flooding out using a bucket and a mop,” she said.
But the water pouring in from the windows of her kitchen and bathroom -- the only windows -- eventually filled up to her knees. The murky, blackened water smelled, she said.
“It’s probably from a sewage overflow. I can’t seem to get the smell out,” she said. “The power is back but my refrigerator broke down. All the food is spoiled. The floor and furniture are still wet. I don’t think I can use them again.”
She said she was staying in the building’s attic for the time being.
On the Seoul mayor’s plan to phase out banjiha homes, like the one she lives in, she said she didn’t think it was going to happen. “Well, what do you expect people to do? They live here because it’s cheaper, you know,” she said.
Another banjiha resident in the same neighborhood, asking to be quoted only by her family name, Baek, said her “whole life is already here.”
Although she was aware of the dangers, she “wouldn’t know where to go,” she said.
In Dongjak, one of the districts to suffer a heavier blow from the rain, a woman in her 50s with a mental disability was unable to escape her flooding underground home in time and later found dead on Tuesday.
Underground homes are very common in the capital, more than anywhere else. According to statistics, some 95 percent of the country’s 379,605 basement or semi-basement residences can be found in Seoul.
People Power 21, a civic group based in Seoul, pointed out in a statement Thursday that the metrogovernment office’s past attempts to regulate “unlivable” residences, including banjiha, had repeatedly fallen through.
In 2012, after the laws were amended to bar additional construction of banjiha homes, tens of thousands were still newly built due to loopholes in surveillance, the group said.
“The recent flooding deaths were a familiar disaster that could have been prevented if Seoul had taken the steps that it had proposed in the past.”
Chang Dukjin, a professor of sociology at Seoul National University, told The Korea Herald that doing away with banjiha is “a step in the right direction, in that we are raising the minimum standard of living.”
“But the challenging part would be to figure out the practicalities of budget for helping the residents relocate, providing them with alternative housing options.”
The minor Justice Party on Thursday said the deaths among vulnerable residents make a case for expanding public housing in the country’s expensive capital. “Our government is obligated to come up with more housing that meets the basic standards of safety and prohibit ones that don’t,” the party said.
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday called for arranging state-owned housing for a 70-something woman who lost her two daughters in their 40s and a school-age granddaughter in banjiha flooding. The family drowned in their home in Gwanak in the early hours of Tuesday as they waited for help. After visiting the family’s flooded home on Tuesday, Yoon told a Cabinet meeting that “never again should we allow preventable tragedies.”
How Seoul failed its most vulnerable, flooded in their basement homes
by Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Min Joo Kim for the Washington Post (see pics at the source)
SEOUL - As rainwater gushed into Yoon Jin-hyeok’s semi-underground apartment on Monday, the night of South Korea’s historic downpour, the 26-year-old and his two roommates scrambled to pump out water from their 390-square-foot home. But the water filled up to their knees in just an hour.
“I felt so desperate,” Yoon said, as he scooped mud and dirt out of his home days later.
[Read more]
Yoon considers himself lucky. He survived. Just a few miles away, a teenager, her mother and aunt, who had Down syndrome, drowned in their semi-basement home. In a nearby district, a resident with a developmental disability escaped but returned to rescue her cat, got trapped inside and died.
The record rainfall in parts of South Korea this week that killed at least 11 drew into focus Seoul’s most vulnerable residents, who live in semi-underground flood hazards. The lack of funding and planning to protect hundreds of thousands of the city’s poor, elderly and disabled has spurred widespread anger. Over the past three years, the Seoul city government slashed flood-related spending by about a third, from about $474 million to $323 million in 2022, budget documents show.
Seoul’s mayor announced this week plans to phase out half-basement units in response to the disaster, which residents and experts say is only a short-term solution to growing housing and income inequality in the area around the capital. About a decade ago, in response to the last major flood to inundate the capital area, Seoul made a similar commitment that went unfulfilled.
Apartment prices in Seoul have more than doubled in the past five years, with rising interest rates and mortgages increasingly pricing residents out of homeownership. Landlords have sharply raised rental prices, pushing people out of homes they can no longer afford.
“Though dark, musty and unhygienic, it was the only affordable option that I could find,” Yoon, a student, said of his home. “I agree it is an inhumane environment for people to live in, but we didn’t come here because we wanted to. Do we really have other options?”
This week’s devastating floods are not likely to be the last. In recent years, Seoul has increasingly been exposed to extreme weather such as heat waves and floods. Low-lying areas in southern Seoul, even including the affluent Gangnam area, have repeatedly been hit. “For South Korea, climate change will largely be felt through extreme weather events, primarily flooding in certain areas and droughts in others,” wrote the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based center-left think tank.
In the aftermath of Monday and Tuesday’s record rainfall, horrific stories emerged of those who were trapped inside when pressure from the floods sealed their front doors shut. Some escaped through ground-level windows that are often barricaded with metal bars as a security measure. These homes, or “banjiha,” gained global attention after their depiction in the Academy Award-winning movie “Parasite.”
An elderly couple, ages 90 and 87, banged on their window for help as water rushed to their chests, and a neighbor upstairs broke open their window so they could escape, Korean media reported. A 67-year-old living alone was watching television when she noticed her living room fill up with water. As neighbors struggled to remove the metal security bars with a saw, the glass on her front door cracked, relieving the water pressure and allowing her to flee.
These stories have sparked public outcry, prompting calls for more resources and attention on public services for marginalized communities, as well as an overhaul of the country’s housing and climate policies to protect them.
“This torrential flood once again reminded us that disasters do not treat everyone equally. In particular, it was most harmful to the socially disadvantaged, low income and disabled who live in half-basements,” said Jang Hye-young, a lawmaker from the liberal minority Justice Party and a disability rights advocate. (see an interview with her here, on the anti-discrimination law!)
The cramped, tiny apartments that get barely any sunlight are a relic of the 1970s, when many basements were built as bunkers in event of a North Korean attack. They were originally banned from being lived in but were converted into rental units because of a housing crunch. There are about 330,000 banjiha homes nationwide, with about 200,000 in Seoul, according to the 2020 census.
On Wednesday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would ban such spaces from being lived in and announced a plan that offers monetary incentives and a grace period of 10 to 20 years to convert banjiha homes for nonresidential use. The banjiha spaces would then be repurposed into warehouses or other facilities. The city government proposed public rental housing as alternative homes for residents.
“The policy we are working on is not a makeshift solution, but a fundamental one to protect the safety and provide our citizens with housing stability,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in a statement.
For many, Oh’s commitment was a deja vu moment from the aftermath of serious floods in 2010. Under Oh, who served a previous stint as mayor between 2006 and 2011, the city proposed prohibiting the issue of new construction permits for banjiha units.
In 2012, the national government passed laws to ban the building of new banjiha apartments in habitually flooded areas. Still, 40,000 new banjiha units have been built in the capital since then, according to the city.
This week’s renewed plan was criticized by disability rights advocates and housing experts, who say it overlooks fundamental housing inequalities in South Korea.
“It sounds good in the immediate term, but it’s unrealistic and empty,” said Jang, the lawmaker. “Without resolving fundamental problems, such as the shortage of public rental housing in the metropolitan area, the excessive burden of housing costs on low-income households, and the insufficiency of the institutional rent control system, an announcement alone will not solve anything properly.”
In response to the last major flood, Oh pledged that the city government would increase spending on flood prevention services. Under his successor, who served from 2011 to 2020, the flood prevention budget increased annually until 2019, though it has plummeted since. City officials say the budget decreased because major projects had been completed.
But housing experts say city planners still need to prioritize flood prevention, particularly for affordable housing units.
“Seoul Metropolitan Government cutting the flood prevention budget was the wrong thing to do. … To prevent damage from natural disasters you need to be preparing for them when there is no disaster,” said Kwon Dae-jung, a real estate studies professor at Myongji University in Seoul.
With rising housing prices and a lack of public rental homes to accommodate residents who move out of banjiha units, policymakers need to devise long-term, comprehensive policies, said Kim Seung-hee, a housing welfare expert at Kangwon National University in South Korea.
One major cause of housing price hikes is growing income inequality across class, generations and regions, which are affected by larger economic and social trends. Policymakers need to contend with these challenges by systemically instituting an expansion of public rental housing and housing subsidies, Kim said.
“It should be preceded by a human-focused policy shift from a focus on the volume of supply,” Kim said. “The priority of the housing support should be set based on the profile of the underprivileged.”
Ruling party politicians' visits to flood-damaged areas cause stir
by Lee Yeon Woo for the Korea Times
The questionable attitudes of some ruling party politicians visiting areas damaged by this week's torrential rains and flooding have stirred up criticism from around the country, saying that such visits are not sincere and only for show.
Rep. Kim Sung-won of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) fueled public anger when his remarks while visiting a neighborhood severely damaged by the rains and flooding ― Sadang-dong, Dongjak District, Seoul ― were picked up by a local broadcaster's camera, Thursday. Dongjak District is one of the areas in Seoul that was hit the hardest by the pounding rains earlier this week, and Kim was visiting the site to assist in a post-flood clean-up with PPP floor leader Kwon Seong-dong.
"Honestly, I hope it rains right now so that the photos will come out better," Kim said to his fellow lawmakers at the site. Rep. Lim Lee-ja, who stood next to Kim, slapped his arm and pointed to the camera to warn him to watch his mouth. However, the scene was already being broadcast live.[Read more]
As the video went viral, a great deal of criticism has been leveled at Kim for making such an insensitive remark, considering how the record torrential rains have caused great damage to people's livelihoods and property, and he was supposed to be visiting the site to help restore the area after severe flood damage.
Kim held a press conference Friday, apologizing for his inappropriate statement and promising to put his best efforts into helping those who were affected by the flooding. Despite his apology, his party, the People Power Party, (PPP) is expected to hand Kim's case over to its ethics committee, according to PPP interim chief Joo Ho-young.
Kim was actually not the first or only politician who made people frown after the record heavy rainfall earlier this week.
The presidential office used a photo of President Yoon Suk-yeol crouching down to look into a semi-basement flat in Gwanak District, Seoul, to make a promotional image for Yoon on its website and social media. The photo was taken at the site where a family of three, one of whom had a developmental disability, died after getting trapped in the home when it flooded with rainwater, Monday evening.
The image read that the president will promptly restore and support the damaged area, thoroughly examine regions where housing is not safe and prepare measures to support safe housing for the vulnerable.
Online users bombarded the presidential office's website and social media comment section for its lack of consideration and exploiting the family's deaths for promotional content. The post was deleted the following day and the presidential office apologized for its inappropriate actions.
These two incidents are not the first time politicians have behaved inappropriately in areas affected by disasters.
Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party was also criticized for only taking pictures in a flood-damaged site in 2020, as her clean attire suggested that she hadn't actually done any work. In 2017, Rep. Hong Jun-pyo, then-leader of the Liberty Korea Party, a predecessor of the PPP, was spotted in a flood-damaged area with a staff member kneeling to help Hong put boots on.
"Politician volunteer work in disaster-hit areas is done to establish their identity as a representative of the public while consoling the public and being there for the public," Lee Jun-han, a political science professor at Incheon University, told The Korea Times.
He noted that politicians should do the volunteer work with sincerity and avoid considering it a one-off event to show off.
"They should have visited the place quietly and taken a low-key approach in their volunteer work. If you flock to a disaster-stricken area and make a fuss, the activity might backfire," Lee said. "In the end, your actions will speak louder than words."
Source: Korea Times 1, 2, 3 | Korea JoongAngDaily | The Korea Herald | The Washington Post
Please visit the sources for pictures and note that these pictures and some of the descriptions of the floods and the living situation of the inhabitants in these texts can be quite graphic.
Seoul City to phase out semi-basements as dwellings
by Lee Hyo-Jin for The Korea Times
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is planning to phase out the use of semi-basements as dwellings as a number of people living in semi-basement flats were killed when Seoul was hit with torrential rains and flooding, underscoring the vulnerability of those in poor living conditions.
Seoul and its surrounding areas were pounded with record-breaking rainfall for two straight days from Monday, before the rains moved to other parts of the country, resulting in 10 dead and 8 missing (OP note: as of August 11, the number increased unfortunately today), as well as major damage to thousands of homes, shops, cars and farmland, so far.
[Read more]
A family of three living in Sillim-dong, Gwanak District of Seoul was found dead in their semi-basement home after becoming trapped there when water gushed down into the flat through a sinkhole in the adjacent road.
A 50-something woman living with her mother in a semi-basement flat in Sangdo-dong, Dongjak District, was also killed in the flood. The two initially managed to escape from their home, but the younger woman later drowned after she returned to rescue her pet cat, according to the police.
These tragic incidents have highlighted the need to protect those in vulnerable living conditions.
Semi-basement ("banjiha" in Korean) flats, refer to homes that are built halfway below ground level. Originally required to be built in each building in the 1960s as air-raid shelters, in the 1970s, the building code was amended and the spaces became an affordable housing option for low-income urban dwellers. With minimal light and airflow through small windows, the often damp and moldy homes are especially prone to damage in floods.
According to 2020 census data, 327,000 households were living in such flats across the country, accounting for 2 percent of the total households. Of them, the vast majority ― 96 percent ― were residing in Seoul and its surrounding areas.
After heavy rains in 2010, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, announced that it would restrict building permits to buildings with semi-basement housing, and since then, permits have been restricted to buildings with basement-level residential spaces that face concerns of flooding.
Now, following this week's tragic deaths in semi-basement dwellings, Seoul city has announced that it will gradually phase out such housing.
The city government will consult with the central government to revise the Building Act, which regulates construction to semi-basement apartments for residential purposes.
It will also gradually encourage residents currently living in semi-basement flats to move out in the span of 10 to 20 years. Owners will be subsidized for remodeling or will be offered an option to sell the property to the city authorities.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also vowed to come up with measures to better protect the vulnerable group.
"We will review fundamental measures to protect the safety and lives of people living in poor conditions," said land minister Won Hee-ryong on Tuesday during his visit to the neighborhood in Dongjak District where the 50-something woman died.
But some civic groups are critical that these moves are only a repeat of previous efforts that were to no avail. They have also expressed concern that the restrictions may further reduce housing options for low-income households.
"In order for them (residents living in semi-basement flats) to move out of their current homes, there has to be a sufficient supply of public rental housing. Also, the government should first conduct a large-scale investigation on their living conditions before introducing counter measures," Choi Eun-young, head of the Korea Center for City and Environment Research (KOCER), was quoted as saying during an interview with local radio TBS, Thursday.
‘Where would I go?’: Seoul’s underground dwellers see few options
by Kim Arin for The Korea Herald (see pics at the source)
Seoul is banning subterranean living spaces after a series of deaths due to flooding. Over the last three days of downpour, a child and three adults drowned in their semi-basement homes, known as “banjiha.”
Seoul announced Wednesday that in the next two decades, it would phase out all forms of underground residences that are home to about 5 percent of all families in the city.
Mayor Oh Se-hun said in a press release that banjiha homes were “residential structures that threaten the safety of their occupants” and that they needed to be abolished.
“This is going to be a long-term project for improving the safety of homes across the city,” he said.
But for many of the banjiha dwellers, leaving is not an option.
[Read more]
Sohn Mal-nyeon, 77, has been living in her two-room basement unit in Seoul’s southern central Dongjak since her daughter, now 51, was a toddler. Two months ago, her husband moved to a nursing home in Namyangju, about an hour’s drive away, leaving her to live by herself.
She said that on the first night of the downpour, the local community service center called and asked her to spend the night there with some of her neighbors who had to flee their homes.
“I didn’t go. I was trying to keep the flooding out using a bucket and a mop,” she said.
But the water pouring in from the windows of her kitchen and bathroom -- the only windows -- eventually filled up to her knees. The murky, blackened water smelled, she said.
“It’s probably from a sewage overflow. I can’t seem to get the smell out,” she said. “The power is back but my refrigerator broke down. All the food is spoiled. The floor and furniture are still wet. I don’t think I can use them again.”
She said she was staying in the building’s attic for the time being.
On the Seoul mayor’s plan to phase out banjiha homes, like the one she lives in, she said she didn’t think it was going to happen. “Well, what do you expect people to do? They live here because it’s cheaper, you know,” she said.
Another banjiha resident in the same neighborhood, asking to be quoted only by her family name, Baek, said her “whole life is already here.”
Although she was aware of the dangers, she “wouldn’t know where to go,” she said.
In Dongjak, one of the districts to suffer a heavier blow from the rain, a woman in her 50s with a mental disability was unable to escape her flooding underground home in time and later found dead on Tuesday.
Underground homes are very common in the capital, more than anywhere else. According to statistics, some 95 percent of the country’s 379,605 basement or semi-basement residences can be found in Seoul.
People Power 21, a civic group based in Seoul, pointed out in a statement Thursday that the metrogovernment office’s past attempts to regulate “unlivable” residences, including banjiha, had repeatedly fallen through.
In 2012, after the laws were amended to bar additional construction of banjiha homes, tens of thousands were still newly built due to loopholes in surveillance, the group said.
“The recent flooding deaths were a familiar disaster that could have been prevented if Seoul had taken the steps that it had proposed in the past.”
Chang Dukjin, a professor of sociology at Seoul National University, told The Korea Herald that doing away with banjiha is “a step in the right direction, in that we are raising the minimum standard of living.”
“But the challenging part would be to figure out the practicalities of budget for helping the residents relocate, providing them with alternative housing options.”
The minor Justice Party on Thursday said the deaths among vulnerable residents make a case for expanding public housing in the country’s expensive capital. “Our government is obligated to come up with more housing that meets the basic standards of safety and prohibit ones that don’t,” the party said.
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday called for arranging state-owned housing for a 70-something woman who lost her two daughters in their 40s and a school-age granddaughter in banjiha flooding. The family drowned in their home in Gwanak in the early hours of Tuesday as they waited for help. After visiting the family’s flooded home on Tuesday, Yoon told a Cabinet meeting that “never again should we allow preventable tragedies.”
How Seoul failed its most vulnerable, flooded in their basement homes
by Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Min Joo Kim for the Washington Post (see pics at the source)
SEOUL - As rainwater gushed into Yoon Jin-hyeok’s semi-underground apartment on Monday, the night of South Korea’s historic downpour, the 26-year-old and his two roommates scrambled to pump out water from their 390-square-foot home. But the water filled up to their knees in just an hour.
“I felt so desperate,” Yoon said, as he scooped mud and dirt out of his home days later.
[Read more]
Yoon considers himself lucky. He survived. Just a few miles away, a teenager, her mother and aunt, who had Down syndrome, drowned in their semi-basement home. In a nearby district, a resident with a developmental disability escaped but returned to rescue her cat, got trapped inside and died.
The record rainfall in parts of South Korea this week that killed at least 11 drew into focus Seoul’s most vulnerable residents, who live in semi-underground flood hazards. The lack of funding and planning to protect hundreds of thousands of the city’s poor, elderly and disabled has spurred widespread anger. Over the past three years, the Seoul city government slashed flood-related spending by about a third, from about $474 million to $323 million in 2022, budget documents show.
Seoul’s mayor announced this week plans to phase out half-basement units in response to the disaster, which residents and experts say is only a short-term solution to growing housing and income inequality in the area around the capital. About a decade ago, in response to the last major flood to inundate the capital area, Seoul made a similar commitment that went unfulfilled.
Apartment prices in Seoul have more than doubled in the past five years, with rising interest rates and mortgages increasingly pricing residents out of homeownership. Landlords have sharply raised rental prices, pushing people out of homes they can no longer afford.
“Though dark, musty and unhygienic, it was the only affordable option that I could find,” Yoon, a student, said of his home. “I agree it is an inhumane environment for people to live in, but we didn’t come here because we wanted to. Do we really have other options?”
This week’s devastating floods are not likely to be the last. In recent years, Seoul has increasingly been exposed to extreme weather such as heat waves and floods. Low-lying areas in southern Seoul, even including the affluent Gangnam area, have repeatedly been hit. “For South Korea, climate change will largely be felt through extreme weather events, primarily flooding in certain areas and droughts in others,” wrote the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based center-left think tank.
In the aftermath of Monday and Tuesday’s record rainfall, horrific stories emerged of those who were trapped inside when pressure from the floods sealed their front doors shut. Some escaped through ground-level windows that are often barricaded with metal bars as a security measure. These homes, or “banjiha,” gained global attention after their depiction in the Academy Award-winning movie “Parasite.”
An elderly couple, ages 90 and 87, banged on their window for help as water rushed to their chests, and a neighbor upstairs broke open their window so they could escape, Korean media reported. A 67-year-old living alone was watching television when she noticed her living room fill up with water. As neighbors struggled to remove the metal security bars with a saw, the glass on her front door cracked, relieving the water pressure and allowing her to flee.
These stories have sparked public outcry, prompting calls for more resources and attention on public services for marginalized communities, as well as an overhaul of the country’s housing and climate policies to protect them.
“This torrential flood once again reminded us that disasters do not treat everyone equally. In particular, it was most harmful to the socially disadvantaged, low income and disabled who live in half-basements,” said Jang Hye-young, a lawmaker from the liberal minority Justice Party and a disability rights advocate. (see an interview with her here, on the anti-discrimination law!)
The cramped, tiny apartments that get barely any sunlight are a relic of the 1970s, when many basements were built as bunkers in event of a North Korean attack. They were originally banned from being lived in but were converted into rental units because of a housing crunch. There are about 330,000 banjiha homes nationwide, with about 200,000 in Seoul, according to the 2020 census.
On Wednesday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would ban such spaces from being lived in and announced a plan that offers monetary incentives and a grace period of 10 to 20 years to convert banjiha homes for nonresidential use. The banjiha spaces would then be repurposed into warehouses or other facilities. The city government proposed public rental housing as alternative homes for residents.
“The policy we are working on is not a makeshift solution, but a fundamental one to protect the safety and provide our citizens with housing stability,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in a statement.
For many, Oh’s commitment was a deja vu moment from the aftermath of serious floods in 2010. Under Oh, who served a previous stint as mayor between 2006 and 2011, the city proposed prohibiting the issue of new construction permits for banjiha units.
In 2012, the national government passed laws to ban the building of new banjiha apartments in habitually flooded areas. Still, 40,000 new banjiha units have been built in the capital since then, according to the city.
This week’s renewed plan was criticized by disability rights advocates and housing experts, who say it overlooks fundamental housing inequalities in South Korea.
“It sounds good in the immediate term, but it’s unrealistic and empty,” said Jang, the lawmaker. “Without resolving fundamental problems, such as the shortage of public rental housing in the metropolitan area, the excessive burden of housing costs on low-income households, and the insufficiency of the institutional rent control system, an announcement alone will not solve anything properly.”
In response to the last major flood, Oh pledged that the city government would increase spending on flood prevention services. Under his successor, who served from 2011 to 2020, the flood prevention budget increased annually until 2019, though it has plummeted since. City officials say the budget decreased because major projects had been completed.
But housing experts say city planners still need to prioritize flood prevention, particularly for affordable housing units.
“Seoul Metropolitan Government cutting the flood prevention budget was the wrong thing to do. … To prevent damage from natural disasters you need to be preparing for them when there is no disaster,” said Kwon Dae-jung, a real estate studies professor at Myongji University in Seoul.
With rising housing prices and a lack of public rental homes to accommodate residents who move out of banjiha units, policymakers need to devise long-term, comprehensive policies, said Kim Seung-hee, a housing welfare expert at Kangwon National University in South Korea.
One major cause of housing price hikes is growing income inequality across class, generations and regions, which are affected by larger economic and social trends. Policymakers need to contend with these challenges by systemically instituting an expansion of public rental housing and housing subsidies, Kim said.
“It should be preceded by a human-focused policy shift from a focus on the volume of supply,” Kim said. “The priority of the housing support should be set based on the profile of the underprivileged.”
Ruling party politicians' visits to flood-damaged areas cause stir
by Lee Yeon Woo for the Korea Times
The questionable attitudes of some ruling party politicians visiting areas damaged by this week's torrential rains and flooding have stirred up criticism from around the country, saying that such visits are not sincere and only for show.
Rep. Kim Sung-won of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) fueled public anger when his remarks while visiting a neighborhood severely damaged by the rains and flooding ― Sadang-dong, Dongjak District, Seoul ― were picked up by a local broadcaster's camera, Thursday. Dongjak District is one of the areas in Seoul that was hit the hardest by the pounding rains earlier this week, and Kim was visiting the site to assist in a post-flood clean-up with PPP floor leader Kwon Seong-dong.
"Honestly, I hope it rains right now so that the photos will come out better," Kim said to his fellow lawmakers at the site. Rep. Lim Lee-ja, who stood next to Kim, slapped his arm and pointed to the camera to warn him to watch his mouth. However, the scene was already being broadcast live.[Read more]
As the video went viral, a great deal of criticism has been leveled at Kim for making such an insensitive remark, considering how the record torrential rains have caused great damage to people's livelihoods and property, and he was supposed to be visiting the site to help restore the area after severe flood damage.
Kim held a press conference Friday, apologizing for his inappropriate statement and promising to put his best efforts into helping those who were affected by the flooding. Despite his apology, his party, the People Power Party, (PPP) is expected to hand Kim's case over to its ethics committee, according to PPP interim chief Joo Ho-young.
Kim was actually not the first or only politician who made people frown after the record heavy rainfall earlier this week.
The presidential office used a photo of President Yoon Suk-yeol crouching down to look into a semi-basement flat in Gwanak District, Seoul, to make a promotional image for Yoon on its website and social media. The photo was taken at the site where a family of three, one of whom had a developmental disability, died after getting trapped in the home when it flooded with rainwater, Monday evening.
The image read that the president will promptly restore and support the damaged area, thoroughly examine regions where housing is not safe and prepare measures to support safe housing for the vulnerable.
Online users bombarded the presidential office's website and social media comment section for its lack of consideration and exploiting the family's deaths for promotional content. The post was deleted the following day and the presidential office apologized for its inappropriate actions.
These two incidents are not the first time politicians have behaved inappropriately in areas affected by disasters.
Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party was also criticized for only taking pictures in a flood-damaged site in 2020, as her clean attire suggested that she hadn't actually done any work. In 2017, Rep. Hong Jun-pyo, then-leader of the Liberty Korea Party, a predecessor of the PPP, was spotted in a flood-damaged area with a staff member kneeling to help Hong put boots on.
"Politician volunteer work in disaster-hit areas is done to establish their identity as a representative of the public while consoling the public and being there for the public," Lee Jun-han, a political science professor at Incheon University, told The Korea Times.
He noted that politicians should do the volunteer work with sincerity and avoid considering it a one-off event to show off.
"They should have visited the place quietly and taken a low-key approach in their volunteer work. If you flock to a disaster-stricken area and make a fuss, the activity might backfire," Lee said. "In the end, your actions will speak louder than words."
Source: Korea Times 1, 2, 3 | Korea JoongAngDaily | The Korea Herald | The Washington Post