A man in his 50s, identified only as A, lives alone in his car at the Danyang Palgyeong rest stop. [Danyang-gun/Yonhap]
A man in his 50s, identified only as A, lives alone in his car at the Danyang Palgyeong rest stop. [Danyang-gun/Yonhap]

A man in his 50s who had been surviving on food scraps from rest stop trash cans and sleeping in his car during a summer heat wave has received emergency welfare support after a rest stop employee reported his situation to local authorities.

Danyang-gun in North Chungcheong Province said Thursday it had provided emergency welfare services to the man, who had been living in his car with no fixed residence.

The man, identified only as A, 56, had been drifting between rest stops across the country before moving to the Danyang Palgyeong rest stop about three months ago. He had been living alone inside his car, parked in the rest stop's lot.

His situation came to light after a rest stop employee who had been keeping an eye on him filed a report with the county.

When county officials visited the scene, they found that A's car had run completely out of fuel, leaving him unable to run the air conditioning despite the intense heat. He had been scavenging leftover food from the rest stop's food waste bins because he could not afford proper meals, and his nutritional condition was poor when he was found.

A had his resident registration in another region, which meant he did not qualify for welfare support from Danyang-gun. He was not registered as a low-income household either, leaving him in a blind spot in the social welfare system.

The county helped him transfer his resident registration to the area and arranged temporary housing. It also arranged meal support and connected him with a local self-sufficiency center so he could receive livelihood assistance through employment.

"A small amount of attention toward a neighbor protected a household in crisis that had fallen through the cracks of the welfare system," a county official said. "We will continue to actively identify households in crisis and swiftly connect them with the welfare services they need."


betterj@heraldcorp.com