Understanding young people’s housing conditions and preferences
Problem
Conduct research on the housing conditions of young people and explore strategies for achieving sustainable development in a small historic town in Slovenia. The underlying issue is that young people in Slovenia tend to leave their parents' home at a very late age, around 29, due to unaffordable housing options.
Approach
The objective of the study was to examine a) young people's living and housing conditions, b) their perceptions of housing issues, and c) their housing preferences, with the overarching goal of aligning their preferences with sustainable development.
Role
As the research lead, I mentored six students throughout the research, synthesis, and communication phases.
Process
01 Mentoring day: Social Science Methods for Urban Research
02 Focus group: Led a focus group with 6 young people to uncover the current state of their housing conditions and their preferences
During the focus group, it turned out that housing conditions are a sensitive topic for young people as they did not want to share details on living with their parents. As a leader, I had to break the ice and approached the challnege by telling humorous stories and anecdotes from my own experiences of living with my parents which showed them that “we are on the same boat”. This, in turn, enabled participants to gain mutual comfort which facilitated disclosure and discussion.
03 Survey questionnaire
Designed a research questionnaire to examine young people’s living and housing conditions and their preferences. The questionnaire was filled by 170 young people.
04 Data analysis in Nvivo and SPSS, data visualization
Quantiative results obtained from the questionaire were ambigious. On the one hand, young people reported high satisfaction with their housing conditions and at the same time perceived housing as their big personal problem. These quantitative insights showed the great importance of supplementing quantitative insights with qualitative research methods that uncover people’s emotions and models of their world. Insights from the focus group helped us explain this ambiguity with young people developing pragmatic realism towards their housing problem.
05 Synthesis
Of results and writing final report (Final report in Slovenian available here)
Research findings
Owning an apartment or a house is a highly valued orientation, and young people prefer to live in dispersed settlement patterns. These preferences are not aligned with sustainable development goals. Therefore, implementing sustainable living solutions will require top-down policies by the municipality. It is crucial to create progressive housing policies to address growing social inequalities, as young people primarily rely on parental assistance to solve their housing problems.
Learnings
Through mentoring students, I discovered that opening up as a person and sharing personal anecdotes and practical experiences is the key to helping them retain new knowledge and apply it in a hands-on manner.
