Bus Houses Proposed for Youth Housing Crisis Draw Backlash: "Treating Youth Like Refugees?"

[Anchor]

Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Hee has proposed the concept of "Bus Houses," which would involve remodeling scrapped buses into temporary living spaces for young people. The opposition party criticized the idea, stating it "turns young people into refugees on the roads," and even within the Democratic Party, criticism arose pointing out its impracticality.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has the details.

[Reporter]

This is a post uploaded yesterday afternoon, August 7, on social media by lawmaker Hwang Hee, a three-term Democratic Party member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee who formerly served as the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as a proposal to alleviate the youth housing crisis.

He suggested that just as the Netherlands supplies more than 10,000 households through "boat houses" that remodel retired or used ships, South Korea should consider "bus houses" utilizing scrapped buses.

His proposal is to "remodel scrapped buses into residential spaces and provide them as short-term housing for young people."

He wrote that if remodeling costs are estimated at around 50 million won per bus, 10,000 units would cost only about 500 billion won, suggesting that locations near university areas or subway stations be utilized.

He also added that they could be designed as "mobile bus houses" capable of moving under their own power.

However, criticisms immediately poured in on social media platforms such as "Lead by example" and "Are young people refugees?", and the People Power Party lashed out, saying it "turned young people into refugees on the road."

[Park Chong-kwon / Senior Spokesperson, People Power Party : Show an example by having you and your family immediately move in as the first residents of a bus house. Is this a measure for the young people?]

Criticism also emerged within the Democratic Party, pointing out that "there is not much idle space in South Korea's urban centers, and considering the installation of water and sewage facilities, it is unrealistic."

As the backlash mounted, lawmaker Hwang deleted the social media post and uploaded an explanation stating, "It was merely at the level of an idea to provide temporary living spaces until young people can secure proper housing," and that "it does not mean the government is pushing for such a policy," though he soon deleted this post as well.

The Democratic Party stated its official position, saying, "It is an individual lawmaker's opinion that has nothing to do with the party's official stance."

(Photo courtesy of Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video by Chang Hyun-ki | Graphics by Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.