Health ministry eases residency rules at senior housing

South Korea's health ministry said Monday it will ease residency requirements at senior welfare housing so that residents can remain after their health deteriorates, part of a set of proposed rules meant to strengthen the rights of people living in the facilities.

The revision to the enforcement rules of the Elderly Welfare Act, announced for public comment from Oct. 13 to Nov. 23, would allow residents to stay if they can maintain independent living with help such as home-based long-term care insurance services. Current rules admit only people aged 60 or older who can manage an independent household, including cooking for themselves.

"We have prepared this so that residents can continue living in their homes even if their health changes," the ministry said in releasing the draft.

The ministry said the revision is being pursued as a national policy task and is meant to preemptively fix gaps raised in the field at senior welfare housing, which is expected to grow sharply as South Korea enters a super-aged society, and to let such housing serve as a key residential infrastructure combining care and housing within the integrated care system.

The proposal also creates a residents' council that would give occupants a direct channel to raise opinions on how a facility is run. The council could be formed with written consent from more than half of residents and confirmation by the head of the local city, county or district office, and facility heads would be required to report regularly on operations and management fees. The ministry said current law classifies senior welfare housing as a social welfare facility even though it functions as a home where older people live out their lives, limiting residents' ability to have their views reflected in operations.

Oversight of contracted operators would be tightened as well. Operators that fail to meet requirements or run a facility significantly differently from the terms confirmed by local authorities would face a correction order from the owner, who would then be obligated to withdraw the contract if the operator does not comply, and owners would be required to report to authorities when selecting or changing a contractor. The ministry said there had been no basis to act against contracted operators that failed to fulfill their obligations, even though owners may entrust all or part of a facility's operations to specialized corporations or organizations. In one case, a facility faced closure because its owner was serving a long prison sentence and no service was contracted out for an extended period, with no means available to address the situation since only the owner could select a contracted operator.

Under the new rules, if a local government head determines that an owner cannot perform that role because of death, corporate dissolution, imprisonment, bankruptcy, rehabilitation proceedings or loss of contact, the residents' council could take over duties such as selecting or replacing a contractor and terminating contracts.

The draft also includes provisions to provide short-term housing support services for discharged older patients returning to their communities and to reorganize the delivery system of the Senior Citizens Welfare Center for disasters such as heat waves and cold spells, the ministry said.

As of December 2025, South Korea had 47 senior welfare housing facilities with 11,090 households in total.