Filling the Gaps of Housing Adaptation in Spain: Is Private Expenditure an Alternative to Public Support?

Abstract

Housing adaptation for elderly or disabled households is a recent social protection policy in Spain. Different administrations have introduced support programs for low-resource households to improve their homes, promoting independent living and aging in place. However, these programs are still limited. Does household expenditure fill the gap? Kurt Lewin’s ideas about adaptive behavior (Lewin, 1951) underpin this investigation about privately funded home adaptations. Microdata analysis of the last Spanish survey on disabilities (EDAD2008) is used to explain how some home expenditure decisions are in practice adaptive behaviors that complement public programs to cover the most basic environmental needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Accessible housing
• housing adaptation
• adaptive behavior
• expenditure decisions
• aging at home
• disability

Notes

Notes

1 Survey on Disabilities, Personal Autonomy and Dependency situations.

2 Plan Estatal de Vivienda 2005–2008. Real Decreto 801/2005, de 1 de Julio. BOE num. 166, 13 de Julio de 2005. Orden VIV/2784/2006 de 27 de julio established the following eligible actions:

• Installation or adaptation of elevators

• Installation or improvement of access ramps

• Installation or improvement of mechanical devices for access to buildings, adapted to the needs of people with motor disabilities

• Installation of information elements for orientation in the use of stairs and elevators

• Works to adapt housing to the needs of people with motor, hearing or other disabilities, or people over 65 years of age.

3 23.9% over the EU-28 average (Eurostat, 2015).

4 An Autonomous Community is first-level political and administrative division, created by the Spanish constitution of 1978, providing a wide autonomy to the historical nationalities and regions that make up Spain.

5 https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2010/03/11/pdfs/BOE-A-2010-4056.pdf

6 https://www.diba.cat/es/web/benestar/arranjaments/arranjaments

7 Catalan sufficiency income indicator. 1,5 IRSC is equivalent to 15.935,46 for a 1 person household, as established by the budgetary Law 4/2017, del 28 de març, de pressupostos de la Generalitat de Catalunya per al 2017.

8 Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya Núm. 7345 - 6.4.2017.