Health ministry opens senior care house in converted day care center

The health ministry said Tuesday that an underused day care center in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, has been converted into a short-term residence for older people recovering from hospital stays, the first such case in the country built with residents' consent.

The first vice minister of health and welfare, Hyun Soo-yeop, visited Songgwang Community Welfare Center in Gwangsan District on Tuesday afternoon to inspect the housing-linked care service and attend the opening ceremony for the facility, named Jungganjip Seoun.

The residence is the product of a pilot project run by the ministry and KB Kookmin Bank through a public-private partnership, with 200 million won ($149,723) in project costs.

Jungganjip, or short-term support housing, is a regional housing and care base where discharged older patients live temporarily, usually for no more than three months, while receiving appropriate care services. The Seoun facility occupies 387.18 square meters on the first floor of the Seoun Hopetown 2 complex at Seonam-ro 19 in Gwangsan District. It has eight residence rooms, a care home center and shared space, and is run by the social welfare foundation Hoyun Silver Home. Local residents who need recovery care may stay for one to three months in principle.

The ministry has run the housing-linked care pilot since 2025 in four local governments, targeting dense senior housing complexes such as senior welfare housing and permanent rental apartments. The sites are Gwangsan District, which covers permanent rental housing, as well as Hongcheon County in Gangwon Province and Gunsan and Gochang in North Jeolla Province, which cover senior welfare housing. About 120 households are served at each site.

An interim evaluation found the pilot fills gaps left by existing senior care services and has positive effects on residents' health and on preventing social isolation. Participants in the pilot have an average age of 74.2 and are 57.4 percent male, compared with an average age of about 80 and 80 percent women for the existing tailored senior care service.

"This case, in which an idle day care center in the community that became underused due to demographic change was reborn as a space dedicated to care for local residents, including apartment occupants, clearly shows the policy direction that housing infrastructure and care should take in the future," Hyun said. He added that the government will spare no policy support to spread such good models nationwide.