[Anchor]

This endless heatwave is especially harsh for some. The lives of elderly residents living alone with no one to call and homeless people with nowhere to go are left completely exposed to the extreme heat.

Reporter Cho Min-ki went out to cover the story.

[Reporter]

A jjokbang (impoverished room) village in Jung-gu, Seoul.

In these cramped rooms of just about 1 pyeong (approx. 3.3 square meters) lined closely together along the hallway, residents try to cool off with electric fans, but it is far from enough.

[Jeong Nam-ae / Jjokbang Village Resident: I can't sleep at night. So how agonizing must it be? I have no energy left.]

At the entrance of the jjokbang village, a single public air conditioner is operating.

However, the airflow does not reach the opposite end of the hallway, so even with electric fans running like this, the temperature inside the rooms exceeds 33°C (91°F).

As an unprecedented heatwave continues, social workers and nurses from the jjokbang counseling center have stepped up to check residents' health conditions three times a day.

[(Is your blood pressure okay?) Yes. (It's hot out, so please make sure to drink plenty of water.) Yes.]

Most of the jjokbang village residents are elderly people living alone, and since they have no family to contact even if they suffer from heat-related illnesses, their well-being is checked periodically.

[Park Eun-suk / Jjokbang Village Resident: I don't (have family). It's just me. Since I'm alone, it's one thing to be sick, but even if I wanted to call for someone, I can't speak up, so I can't say anything.]

However, there are only 8 social workers and 1 nurse in charge of some 170 households.

[Jeong Nam-ae / Jjokbang Village Resident: Whenever we say something is lacking, they provide everything. They are grateful people. They even set up shelters and come out to help without taking holidays.]

There are also places where people who struggle to endure the heatwave gather.

These are so-called "emergency sleeping spaces" prepared by local governments so that homeless people can escape tropical nights.

Cleaned clothes and socks are hung across bunk beds here and there as people try to sleep, avoiding the tropical night.

[Emergency Sleeping Space User: It's indescribably hot. Extremely hot. (It's still not too hot when you sleep here, right?) Yes, because they keep the (air conditioner) on.]

Any homeless person who does not have tuberculosis can use the facility.

[(So, do you sleep here at night too?) Yes, I sleep here. (Is there anything else you need?) No, nothing.]

Yet, the utilization rate is not that high.

[Kim Jae-deok / Social Worker, Bridge Comprehensive Support Center: (Homeless people) used to have somewhat strong alcohol dependency, but now many even have mental illnesses, so the process of persuading them to use the heatwave shelters is quite difficult.]

To ensure that the heatwave does not become an unequal disaster, meticulous support is needed to bring marginalized neighbors into the social safety net.

(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News - implied)
(Video Reported by Lee Byung-ju and Yang Ji-hoon | Video Edited by Choi Hye-young)