"In a Super-Aged Era, Housing Itself Is Care": A Look into 'Seobom House', an Integrated Residential Care Model

Presentation on the Seobom House case study.(Photo by Milly)

 South Korea’s aging speed is among the fastest in the entire world. Indeed, if you travel outside of Seoul and the metropolitan area, it is common to find streets completely devoid of people, with rural villages guarded mostly by elderly residents. The proportion of the aging population is so visually overwhelming that anyone can feel it in their daily lives.

 

Naturally, various care services have emerged to support the elderly. Meal care, emotional support, and healthcare are prime examples. I once accompanied a meal-care field trip for reporting purposes. On that day, we delivered freshly made, still-warm lunchboxes to elderly residents who could not easily prepare meals for themselves, engaging in brief, casual small talk to check on their well-being. Although the conversation was short, I learned that for lonely seniors, someone visiting to deliver a warm meal and check in brings immense emotional strength.

 

And then, there is another form of care: "Housing" care. Residential care operates under the motto, "Housing itself is care," serving as an integrated care model that combines housing, healthcare, nursing, and daily life support. While various organizations offer housing care in Korea, today we will take a closer look at 'Seobom House' (Seoro-Dolbom House) located in Mapo-gu, Seoul.

 

🏠Mapo-gu Care-Support Housing: Seobom House

 

In early July, amid a sweltering heatwave, I attended a local case presentation about Seobom House. Although I had encountered the name several times through past reporting, I had never heard the deeper story behind its inception, which naturally sparked my curiosity.

 

Located in Mapo-gu, Seoul, 'Seobom House' is an abbreviation of 'Seoro-Dolbom House' (Mutual Care House), designed as a public collective housing unit integrated with support services for socially vulnerable groups. Inspired by a residential support case from another region in 2018, it was developed and promoted as a specialized model unique to Mapo-gu, leveraging the local housing cooperative's residential experience and the social solidarity economy (SSE) infrastructure.

 

What stands out most is that it is not exclusively for the elderly; it is a generation-integrated support housing model that accommodates diverse residents ranging from their 20s to their 90s. While the proportion of residents in their 20s is relatively small, youth in need of care—such as socially isolated youth or single-parent families—also reside here.

 

Seobom House consists of 10 floors housing 23 households. The 1st floor features a parking lot, a community garden, and a green yard; the 2nd floor houses shared communal spaces like a kitchen and living room; and the 3rd floor serves as the management office. Floors 4 through 10 are private residential spaces for the residents.

 

Seobom House as shown in the sourcebook.(Photo by Milly)

🏤Service Provision and Care Activities at Seobom House

 

Unlike conventional public housing that merely provides shelter, Seobom House was designed as a "service-supported housing" model. Its core mission is to build self-care, mutual-care, and community-care networks, creating a sustainable local ecosystem where residents can continue to live long-term:

 

-Self-Care: Maintaining daily life independently and managing personal health.

-Mutual-Care: Building trust, mutual care, and sharing relationships with neighbors.

-Community-Care: Connecting local resources and establishing medical, rehabilitation, and care services to enable both short- and long-term support.

 

A key characteristic of Seobom House is that residents naturally form a communal lifestyle, creating a system where they naturally build relationships and look out for one another.

 

As a result, Seobom House fosters familiar relational networks, sparking mutual care and continuous learning. By embracing multiple generations rather than strictly following standard elderly housing criteria, true intergenerational integration is being achieved.

 

⛪"Why Go to Such Lengths?"

 

Director Go Eun-joo, who presented the case, shared that the question she hears most frequently is, "Why?" She answered with a metaphor:

 

"For instance, if you are walking down the street and see garbage on the ground, you can simply walk past it. But I believe the social solidarity economy exists to pick up that trash or build a trash can. Seobom House is no different. In the past, when the government announced and implemented care policies and we went out to the field, we frequently encountered elderly individuals who could barely take a step, yet had to climb high steps just to reach a bathroom. Simply putting anti-slip tape in their homes or cleaning up a bit doesn't mean they can live comfortably. We realized it was time to change that reality."

 

That is how Seobom House began. Just like turning the thought of picking up repeatedly dropped trash and building a trash can into reality, they turned a compassionate vision into action: ensuring that elderly individuals can live in comfortable, convenient spaces rather than harsh, inaccessible housing environments.

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