Abstract
Providing an adequate housing to the socially underprivileged with a weak economic base is the most difficult task of housing policies. Korea established minimum housing standards and has used them for housing policies. However, the level of Korean minimum housing standards is far lower than that of foreign minimum housing standards. Thus, this study made a comparative analysis of Korean minimum housing standards with foreign housing standards in various aspects in order to guarantee housing quality of the socially underprivileged in Korea. In particular, the floor area and ratio of small lease homes are minutely examined to present the actual housing standard of the socially underprivileged. The level of Korean minimum housing standards suggested in this paper is very close to that of Japanese minimum housing standard, which is 37.95 $m^2$ for a 3 member family and just above Chombard de Lauw's pathological limit (36.03 $m^2$). As this research is specifically focused on the establishment of minimum floor area standards for the socially underprivileged, further research should be made in consideration of more specific requirements of various groups for the socially underprivileged.
