Abstract
Permanent rental housing, the construction of which was strongly financed by the central government, is regarded as a social housing for those who fall within the lowest income bracket. Differing from "public rental housing", offered to tenants for sale after a five year rental period, this type of housing is intended for rental use on a long-tenn basis. At present, about 190,000 permanent rental housing units exist in Korea. According to a statistics, 15.6% of its residents did not pay their management fee and rental payment in 4 or more months in 2005, which places stress on the housing management. Based on the "eviction condition" stipulated in the tenancy agreement for permanent rental housing, a householder owning assets or a vehicle which is not used as his means of living, who is overdue with his management fee and rental payment for a long time, may be evicted from the house. However, there are many conflicts and problems between administrators/housing managers and residents in the process of enforcing this regulation. The purpose of this study is to explore the key issues associated with the present situation and the reasons why so many management fee and rental payment for permanent rental housing are overdue. For the purpose of research, data were collected from 10,990 permanent rental housing residents nationwide via a questionnaire survey in February 2007. One third of the respondents had an experience of more than 2 months overdue since they have moved in current residence. For further analysis, the respondents were divided into three groups, based on their working ability. The major finding showed that the group of respondents who have working ability required a more practical plan, such as employment, to have a sustainable life, while the other group of no labor force indicated a need for more housing allowance from the government. To suggest more specific alternatives for the subject of housing payment overdue, further comparison study should be performed between the residents of permanent rental housing and other low income tenants in private housing sector.
