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Ruling Lawmaker's Bus-to-Housing Proposal Prompts Apology

It highlights public frustration over slow progress on adding affordable housing in the Seoul area.

Overview

  • Representative Hwang Hee floated remodeling decommissioned buses into short-term housing for students and young people and deleted the Facebook post on Friday after swift online criticism.
  • The idea drew immediate outrage from social media users and sharp attacks from the opposition People Power Party, which called the proposal mocking and irresponsible.
  • Democratic Party policy chief Han Jeoung-ae apologized at a National Assembly briefing and said the plan had almost no feasibility, urging the public to treat it as an isolated suggestion.
  • The party said it would pursue more conventional responses such as youth housing near subway stations, expanded public housing, and faster modular construction to speed supply.
  • Commentary and editorials used the episode to fault the ruling camp's broader housing record, noting Seoul's rising rents and arguing that symbolic fixes risk deepening public anger unless reconstruction, redevelopment, and other realistic supply channels move faster.