"My life will be much better than before": a qualitative study on the relationship between renewal of public housing, quality of life, and health

The objective was to understand the link between housing, health and quality of life in a context of social housing regeneration, through the experi-ences and perceptions of its inhabitants, exploring the mechanisms that sustain this link before regen-eration, and those elements derived from housing regeneration that result in improvements in qual-ity of life and potentially in health. Between 1980 and the 2000s, Chile faced a massive quantitative housing deficit through a policy that delivered more than 120,000 low-cost social housing apart-ments. Today, thousands present severe habitabil-ity problems, generating negative consequences for their inhabitants, their health and well-being. Seeking to solve the deterioration of housing and neighborhoods, the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanism developed the Housing Complex Regeneration Program. The RUCAS project seeks to evaluate the effects of the program on health and to assess the impact of interventions such as these on vulnerable populations in Latin Ameri-ca. We present results of 8 interviews and 2 focus groups conducted in a social housing complex in process of intervention in Vina del Mar. Using dis-cursive content analysis, results show that the poor material quality of housing is perceived as harm-ful to health. Regenerated housing, on the other hand, promotes the recovery and re-appropriation of spaces and their uses, sociability, new healthy practices, positive feelings and psychological well-being, bringing to the fore the psychosocial com-ponent of people's relationship with their house. It is concluded that housing regeneration has the potential to benefit physical and mental health through both direct mechanisms, derived from the renovated materiality, and indirect mechanisms related to the practices and experiences of the lived space.