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| The population of homeless people in Seoul in 2018 was 3,478, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
Homeless people in Seoul are 54.6 years old on average, and they started living on the streets or in shelters at 42.3, according to Seoul City, Thursday.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Seoul Welfare Foundation and the Seoul Association of Institutes for the Homeless announced the joint study results after interviewing 450 homeless people last year out of the 3,478 who the organizations believe were living on the streets or in shelters in the capital.
According to the study, those people had been homeless for 11.2 years on average.
Some 24 percent of them said snowballing debt, triggering bad credit or bankruptcy, led to them losing their homes. Divorce and alcoholism were also listed as causes, cited by 12.8 percent and 11.1 percent of surveyed homeless people, respectively.
Taking a closer look at last year's homeless population, 2,741 were male and 732 were female along with five being gender-unknown. Of the total, 731 lived on the streets and 2,747 stayed in temporary shelters.
The local government said the number of homeless people has been on a steady decline since it began collecting data in 2013, when the population was 4,505.
Based on the survey, Seoul City has established a comprehensive plan aimed at helping 30 percent of the total homeless population get back on their feet by 2023.
One of their proposed methods is to provide gosiwon, a low-cost style of housing, for those who fail to get along with others in shelters or who live on the streets. They also plan to create 1,200 part-time and full-time jobs in public sectors.
"We will take effective measures to help homeless people reintegrate into the community," a Seoul City official said.
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