Undergraduate and graduate students from the Department of Housing and Residential Environment at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) are participating in a public–private–academic collaborative survey to identify housing-vulnerable households in Jeonju and to improve housing conditions.

To this end, the JBNU Department of Housing and Residential Environment participated on the 16th in the 'Agreement for Identifying Housing-Vulnerable Households and Coordinating Housing Service Support' held in the meeting room of the Jeonju Housing Welfare Center.

Organized by the Jeonju Housing Welfare Center, the agreement brought together seven organizations and groups, including the JBNU Department of Housing and Residential Environment, Deokjin Regional Self-Sufficiency Center, Jeonju City Federation of Organizations for the Disabled, Iyangjae Senior Welfare Center, Jeonju Hyoja Senior Club, and Jeonju Technical High School, to establish a cooperative framework for identifying housing-vulnerable households and linking them with tailored housing welfare services.

Under the agreement, participating organizations will conduct a housing survey of 80 housing-vulnerable households—including households participating in self-sufficiency programs, households with disabled members, and elderly households—to assess housing conditions and service needs. Based on the survey results, they plan to connect tailored housing welfare services with support for housing environment improvements.

The JBNU Department of Housing and Residential Environment will operate a survey team composed of graduate and undergraduate students for this project, enhancing the professionalism of the field survey. In fact, on March 13, under the guidance of Department Head Jang Mi-seon, 12 undergraduate and graduate students participated in a housing survey of 20 households.

Since 2023, the JBNU Department of Housing and Residential Environment has continuously carried out projects to improve the housing conditions of housing-vulnerable households in cooperation with the Jeonju Housing Welfare Center. This year's participation in the survey is also being implemented as part of the National University Promotion Project 'Regional Spatial Welfare Implementation Project'.

Notably, this year's survey will include an additional energy usage survey conducted by Professor Chi-hye Bae of the JBNU Department of Housing and Residential Environment, aiming to comprehensively assess not only the housing environments of vulnerable households but also their energy usage characteristics.

Based on the survey data collected from the 80 households, they will select households in need of housing environment improvements and pursue a 2026 housing environment improvement pilot project targeting those households.

Jang Mi-seon, head of the JBNU Department of Housing and Residential Environment, said, 'It is an important process for the university to collaborate with the local community to investigate the actual living conditions of housing-vulnerable households and to seek measures for improvement in order to realize regional spatial welfare.' She added, 'We will continue education and research that can make a tangible contribution to the local community through field-based surveys and research involving students.'