Homeless Man Heals Self Thru Humanities

Ahn Seung-gap Writes Hopes in Biographical Essay After Years of Life on Street

By Cho Jae-hyon

Staff Reporter

For 10 years, Ahn Seung-gap, 51, has been homeless. In early 1999 when he started sleeping out in the cold, he was a divorcee, credit delinquent, an alcoholic and a gambling addict.

Not only homeless but also hopeless, he wanted to give up, feeling that life was too much to bear. He once attempted suicide.

He tried to live a new life but repeatedly failed. Though he was a college graduate, he found himself sliding down a bottomless pit, while building hostility toward society.

His descent began gradually leveling-out in 2006 when he entered the ``Vision Training Center,'' an institute set up by Seoul City in Yongdap-dong to provide comprehensive services for the homeless.

There he witnessed city officials, social workers and volunteers sincerely working to make the center a warm shelter.