“Landlords on the Lookout and Neighbors Checking In”Gangdong-gu Fully Deploys Its Welfare Safety Net

- Gangdong-gu launches the Community Senior Discovery Team (and Care Team) to discover welfare blind spots

- Establishment of a welfare safety net where neighbors monitor and care for each other, including a reward system for reporting households in crisis

  Gangdong-gu (Head: Lee Soo-hee) announced plans to actively excavate blind spots in welfare, including establishing a public-private cooperation system involving local residents, real estate agents, and landlords. It also mentioned its intention to give rewards to those who report households in crisis.

  Following the pilot operation of the "In-Plug Project" launched to identify households in welfare crisis last year as the first in Seoul, the district will implement it fully across all areas of Gangdong-gu this year. The In-Plug Project is an initiative to establish a human safety net that allows real estate agents and landlords to actively uncover households in welfare crisis. When signing a lease, real estate agents guide landlords on the household crisis identification project. If a landlord or agent discovers signs of crisis in a tenant (such as neglecting mail or failing to pay rent), they are obliged to report it to the local community center. For this project, Gangdong-gu signed a business agreement with the Korea Association of Realtors Gangdong-gu Branch in August last year and completed a pilot operation in three neighborhoods (Seongnae-dong, Cheonho-dong, and Gil-dong). This year, Gangdong-gu built a network to allow 1,257 certified real estate agents in all areas of Gangdong-gu to participate in the In-Plug Project. 

  Lee Dong-min, director of the Real Estate Information Division, stated, “The participation of certified real estate agents who are knowledgeable about local conditions is expected to greatly contribute to the discovery of households in crisis. We encourage active participation from certified real estate agents, landlords, and others to help the In-Plug Project settle in our community successfully.”

  On Mar. 14, 52 members of the Community Senior Discovery Team and Care Team held an inauguration ceremony at Seongnae Social Welfare Center. As part of the elderly job creation program, participants are placed mainly in vulnerable residential areas in the community to conduct patrols and inquiries, directly finding neighbors facing difficulty and providing welfare-related information. The activities are divided into two groups: the Care Team, which visits households in crisis to check on their well-being and deliver welfare items, and the Discovery Team, which visits all households in the community to identify neighbors facing difficulties.

  In particular, the Discovery Team is a new elderly job creation program implemented this year to directly identify neighbors facing difficulties and are unidentified by the administrative system. The team disseminates welfare information to every household. Since 2021, Gangdong-gu has been utilizing the elderly job creation program to focus on efforts to check the well-being of welfare recipients and vulnerable households, addressing social isolation issues and preventing belated discovery of deaths of seniors living alone. 

  Shin Su-jeong, director of Welfare Policy Division, said, “The most crucial aspect in discovering and supporting blind spots in welfare is ‘interest.’ I believe that significant meaning is found when the public and private sectors cooperate to fill each other’s gaps. We intend to continue to focus our efforts on building a dense social safety net to uncover hidden households in crisis in the community.”  Gangdong-gu plans to actively encourage residents’ interest and proactive identification of welfare blind spots by rewarding those who report households in crisis. Residents who discover households in crisis can report them through the local community center or via the KakaoTalk channel (Find Households in Crisis, Receive Local Currency). If the reported household is confirmed to be a beneficiary of the basic livelihood security program or the near-poverty class, the reporter will be granted a reward of KRW 50,000 through Seoul Pay. Gangdong-gu expanded the reward amount and recipients through an ordinance revision in September last year.

  For more information on the reward an eligibility, call or visit your nearest local community center or the Gangdong-gu Office’s Living Security Division.