Abstract
Literature on housing and health outcomes among the elderly generally covers issues such as the relationship between housing quality and health; the intersection between place and space at different stages in the life course; and the impact of public policy to mitigate negative morbidity and mental health outcomes. However, there is little research about the ways in which certain types of informally developed neighborhoods such as colonias and informal homestead subdivisions offer micro-level spaces and housing arrangements that are conducive to family building, household extension, and care for aging parents, but which also have negative outcomes especially for the elderly by exacerbating certain chronic health problems and impaired mobility. In short, space and place matters. This paper provides an overview of the literature on the intersection between housing and health, and drawing upon Texas survey data we explore how low-income (largely) Hispanic households access home ownership through informal homesteading and self-help in two informal subdivisions in Central Texas. Viewed across the life course, this colonia-type housing is associated with a number of particular negative health and mobility impacts especially among the elderly, while at the same time providing an affordable and socially embedded residential alternative of living through old age.
Highlights
This paper provides an overview of the literature on the intersection between housing and health, and drawing upon Texas survey data we explore how low-income Hispanic households access home ownership through informal homesteading and self-help in two informal subdivisions in Central Texas
The data that we present below come from several surveys undertaken at the University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs into the nature of self-help housing improvement processes, from which we can begin to think about the possible interrelationship between the dwelling environment and health and physical mobility status
In that study the independent variables were: household income, age of the dwelling unit, house value, constructions skills of a household member, wastewater problems, Air Condition (AC) problems, type of garbage collection service, and self-reported severe health or mobility problems. Their analysis shows that the number and extent of housing problems increased with age of the dwelling structure, household reporting of problems with the septic tank system and with the source of air cooling, and if the household had a member with health issues or disabilities
Summary
In this paper we have two aims: first to review the general literature about the intersections between housing and health; and second, to drill down and explore the links between health and housing in a particular context of low-income pop-. Called colonias along in the Texas-Mexico border, and informal homestead subdivisions elsewhere, these largely Mexican-origin populations live in unincorporated settlements located in the rural fringe beyond the city limits that have been the focus of multiple studies in the past two decades These studies have described the large scale and nature of housing conditions found in colonias from multiple perspectives (inter alia): developer strategies and seller financing, property titling and insecurity, the lack or low levels of services and infrastructure, the nature of progressive home building and housing improvements over time, household organization across the life course, and the impact of public policy interventions especially in the 1990s (Davies & Holz, 1992; Ward, 1999; Ward & Carew, 2001; Texas Attorney General, 2014; TWDB, 1995; Donelson & Esparza, 2010; Wilson & Menzies, 1997; Olmedo & Ward, 2016). We offer some preliminary thoughts about future research and thinking that may help us to better understand the ways in which informal housing practices can help to improve the quality of life and health scenarios among ageing residents in colonias and similar low-income subdivisions
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