Ho Chi Minh City boarding area uses AI to recognize faces, 16 cameras and quick-removing gates when fighting fires
At the age of U60, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam in Ho Chi Minh City diligently applies technology and tightens fire prevention and fighting to build safe boarding areas for workers.
Proactive digitalization for convenience and safety
At the age of U60, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam (Uncle Tam), owner of a boarding house in An Phu Dong ward, Ho Chi Minh City, is still passionate about learning about new technical solutions. Believing that technology helps reduce labor and bring joy in life, Mr. Tam has proactively gone to many boarding houses to learn from experience.
About 5 years ago, he switched the entire entry and exit control system from fingerprint recognition to facial recognition, and at the same time increased the number of surveillance cameras from 8 to 16 eyes. In which, facial recognition is used for daily entry and exit, while fingerprints are still maintained to open the outer gate, especially in cases where tenants return after curfew hours. Not stopping there, Mr. Tam is researching the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into facial recognition systems to detect strangers appearing and automatically send warnings to his phone.
In terms of fire prevention and fighting, although there is a face recognition layer at the entrance, Mr. Tam designed the boarding house gate with quick-removing latches, creating conditions for fire and rescue vehicles to access. He also researched a centralized automatic smoke alarm system, arranged a separate electric vehicle charging area and continued to add safety solutions.
This methodical investment brings great peace of mind to tenants. Mr. Le Huu Minh, who has been renting for 3 years, shared that motorbikes left outside the corridor with keys already in hand are not worried about being lost. Meanwhile, Ms. Hoang Thi Hoa Loan accepts a price of 1.6 million VND per month, 500,000 VND higher than the old place, to exchange for a clean and secure living space for her young children.
Spreading self-management models, connecting communities
In addition to technical solutions, Mr. Tam maintains strict gambling regulations, and is flexible in personal activities and regularly organizes festivals, cultural exchanges, football, or fire prevention and fighting practices. He has supported quarantine rooms, cooked during epidemics, coordinated Tet bus tickets, and guided workers in sorting waste to protect the environment.
Not only Mr. Tam, many landlords in Ho Chi Minh City are also making efforts to improve the quality of life for workers. Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Hong, owner of Worker Accommodation Area No. 48 on Tran Thanh Mai street, currently manages 39 rooms with 65 tenants. Faced with the situation of theft and "black credit" traps lurking, Ms. Hong participated in the Self-Managed Workers' Group, established a Zalo group to connect with the Regional Police and the Women's Union to promptly propagate fraud tricks, fire prevention and fighting against social evils. She affirmed that raising self-prevention awareness for tenants is a key factor in building safe boarding houses.
These individual efforts are harmonizing with the general movements of localities. Recently, the Women's Union of Linh Xuan Ward in coordination with the Ward Police launched a safe, drug-free boarding house model on Street No. 7. In An Phu Ward, Duong Phung Thien Apartment Building also pioneered the launch of the "Safe Boarding House for Women and Children" model in 2026, aiming to expand to all 7 neighborhoods in the area with more than 2,000 boarding houses.
Ho Chi Minh City has nearly 7.3 million workers, of which more than 5.82 million are in economic establishments and non-business units. The whole area has about 60,500 to nearly 72,600 housing and boarding houses for rent, providing more than 560,000 to nearly 630,000 rooms, meeting accommodation for about 1.4-1.6 million people. This raises the requirement to strengthen coordination between trade union organizations, authorities, police forces, landlords and workers.
Therefore, in June 2026, the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation issued Action Program No. 13/CTrHĐ-LĐLĐ on implementing Resolution No. 02-NQ/TU, with many tasks and solutions for drug prevention and control. Propaganda activities were deployed to grassroots trade unions, trade unions, workers at enterprises and workers residing in boarding houses.
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