Household Characteristics and Housing Deficits of Low-Income Renter Households in Housing Poverty: Focused on the 2014 Korea Housing Survey

Abstract

This study explored the characteristics, housing deficits and expectations for support programs of low-income renter households in housing poverty in order to provide housing policy development and improvement information. Microdata of the 2014 Korea Housing Survey was utilized as secondary data for this study. A total of 2,508,672 low-income renter households (weighted count) in the bottom 40% income ranks of entire general households living in private rental units were selected as study subjects. The major findings were as follows. (1) One point four percent of the subjects were living in non-house living quarters (e.g., shanties, vinyl greenhouses, container houses, and mud huts), 1.4% were in dosshouses, 9.9% were in basements, semi-basements or rooftop units, and 8.2% were in sub-standard units. (2) Among the households whose housing costs burdens were measurable, 75.7% were found to have housing cost burdens to pay 30% or more of their household income towards housing costs (rental costs and maintenance costs), but only 7.5% of the burdened households received a housing voucher. (3) Eighty-one percent were found to be in a housing poverty status as defined by the researcher; in addition, low-income renter households in housing poverty in Seoul tended to have a greater proportion of households headed by females, the elderly, and be persons with low-education or disabilities. (4) Households in housing poverty showed greater expectations for financial support and/or extended provisions of public rental housing than other low-income renter households.