[Anchor]

Amid severe housing instability among young people, Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Hee has proposed the "Bus House" initiative—remodeling decommissioned buses to provide temporary living spaces for youth. Critics argue that instead of turning innocent young people into refugees, the lawmaker should lead by example.

Reporter Son Hyeong-an has the details.

[Reporter]

This post was uploaded to social media this afternoon (August 7) by three-term Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Hee of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, who previously served as Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as a proposal to ease the youth housing shortage.

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

The idea is to "remodel discarded buses into residential spaces and provide them as short-term housing for young people."

He wrote that estimating the remodeling cost at about 50 million won per bus, 10,000 units would require only around 500 billion won, suggesting locations around university areas or subway stations.

He also added that they could be designed as "mobile bus houses" capable of driving themselves.

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

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

Within the Democratic Party as well, criticisms emerged pointing out that "there are not many idle spaces in South Korea's urban centers, and it is impractical considering the installation of water supply and sewage facilities."

As the criticism mounted, Lawmaker Hwang deleted the social media post and uploaded a clarification stating that it "was at the level of an idea to provide temporary living spaces until young people can secure proper housing" and that "the government is not pursuing such a policy," but this post was also soon deleted.

A short time ago, the Democratic Party issued an official statement saying, "This is the lawmaker's personal opinion and has nothing to do with the party's stance."

(Camera Reporter: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing: Yu Mi-ra | Design: Kim Ye-ji)