Hogares Saludables - Assesing the impact of Housing improvements on health, labor and time allocation: Evidence from an experimental study in Colombia

Hogares Saludables (HS) is a social program implemented by Cementos Argos that aims to promote an inclusive society through two complementary components: (i) the reduction of the qualitative housing deficit, and (ii) the development of work and life skills. The first component focuses on improving the infrastructural conditions of the home by providing materials and workers for the improvement of floors, walls and/or bathrooms. The second component focuses on promoting the acquisition of work and life skills of the beneficiaries. Beneficiary families are trained in the basic elements of construction and other skills to facilitate the adoption of healthy habits within the home.

HS adopts a holistic and participatory approach with the community and the social actors of the territory, who are involved from the beginning to the end of the intervention. This has at least two important results. First, the empowerment of families in the process of reducing the housing deficit, which could increase the sense of belonging to the housing and trigger a series of housing improvements in the future. The second result is related to the strengthening of the social network derived from the program through the interaction of the community in each of the moments of the program.

We will evaluate the effects of HS on housing and neighborhood conditions, physical and health, and labor market outcomes. This evaluation will be carried out in the cities of Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla. Given that HS seeks to impact low-income individuals with a high qualitative housing deficit, the evaluation of the program will follow a partial randomization strategy for the selection of treated and non-treated houses. The strategy consists in making a random selection in those territories with a higher degree of qualitative housing deficit. The delimitation of the areas with the highest degree of qualitative deficit will be determined using the 2018 National Census, together with field visits, defining the urban sections where the dwellings to be treated and those that would serve as controls would be randomly selected.

HS activities are carried out in four phases. The first phase is to identify the territories and the beneficiaries. Once the territories are identified, HS hires a social operator and a technical operator who are responsible for the characterization, selection, diagnosis and monitoring of the beneficiaries. The social operator is responsible for the call for applications and pre-registration of potential beneficiaries. The technical operator is responsible for identifying the improvements to be made in each house and agreeing on the scope of the intervention. Both the social operator and the technical operator characterize and select the beneficiaries of the program.

In the second phase of the intervention, the technical operator prepares a detailed budget of the materials required for the improvements in each home. Finally, a schedule and a work plan are agreed upon with the beneficiaries of the program.

In the third phase, a training partner provides basic training in construction skills. So far, the course has a duration of 40 hours, combining a lecture stage and a practical stage in which the beneficiaries apply their theoretical knowledge. This combined modality of theory and practice strengthens the learning process, allowing the beneficiaries to develop the necessary skills to future improvements of their homes. An important advantage of the training offered by HS is that it takes place directly in the territory. This is an innovative aspect of the program, as it facilitates access to training and reduces the likelihood of people dropping out of construction courses.

Finally, in the fourth phase, the technical operator delivers the construction materials, assigns workers to each house and carries the necessary follow-up to ensure compliance with the schedule and work plan defined in the second phase.

The HS program represents a social innovation by integrating three components in the same intervention: (i) community strengthening, (ii) physical housing improvement, and (iii) life skills training. This holistic approach allows for a comprehensive approach to beneficiaries, addressing possible individual and community disadvantages during the intervention, which not only reduces dropout but also increases the impact of the intervention. The HS program, in addition to reducing the qualitative housing deficit of low-income people, seeks to consolidate a circular flow of development in the territories in which it intervenes. The participation of the community, the integral dignification of living conditions, the training in basic construction skills and the sustainability of the program are innovative features of HS with respect to other housing improvement programs.

In terms of the impact evaluation of the HS program, we will evaluate the effects on housing and neighborhood conditions, physical and health, and labor market outcomes. This evaluation will be carried out in the cities of Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla. The experimental design is presented in the following figure:

Once the territories have been selected (see file Protocol.docx), the baseline survey will be conducted at a time 0 (S1) in those control and treatment houses defined (see file Protocol.docx). Then the intervention will be carried out for two months in the treatment group. The treatment and control groups will be conditioned to each city, that is, 200 households in the treatment group and 200 households in the control group in Medellin, Cali and Barranquilla. Finally, a monitoring and evaluation survey will be conducted after 9 months in order to expect that some of the short- and medium-term effects of the intervention will start to occur. The estimation of the effects of HS programs will be estimated through regression analysis.

2023-06-18

2023-08-01

Physical health, mental health, and labor market outcomes.

(1) Mental and physical health: assessment using a reduce form of SF-36; (2) Labor market outcomes: questions about Labor participation, underemployment, labor stability, job search channels, labor income, labor formality, satisfaction with working conditions

Social capital and community ties, time use

(1) Social capital and community ties: questions about questions about the perception of the city's institutions (mayor's office, police, community social groups), perception of security in the neighborhood, satisfaction with the neighborhood, relationship with the neighbors, participation in community events that promote the improvement of the neighborhood. (2) Time use: questions about the time spent caring for the home, work, social gatherings, studying and other.

Given that Hogares Saludables seeks to impact low-income individuals with a high qualitative housing deficit, the RCT follows a partial randomization strategy for the selection of treated and nontreated houses. The strategy consists in making a random selection in those territories with a higher degree of qualitative housing deficit. Delimitation of areas with the highest degree of qualitative deficit can be determined using the 2018 National Census, together with field visits, defining the blocks where the dwellings to be treated and those that would serve as controls would be randomly selected.

Randomized evaluations have two main necessary conditions for their proper functioning. First, it requires that the evaluation be designed prior to the start of the program or intervention. This design allows individuals to be randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control group, ensuring comparability in observable and unobservable characteristics and allowing the causal effect of the program to be identified. Second, a sufficiently large sample size in each group (not necessarily equal) to identify the effects of the program. The idea is that the random assignment of a sufficiently large number of individuals ensures that each group is highly similar in observable and unobservable characteristics so that any differences between the treatment and control groups can be attributed to the program rather than to other factors.

Randomization consists of two steps. First, we identified blocks (sub-neighborhood levels) that were eligible for the program using census data on qualitative housing deficit. Then, we randomly allocate each block either to treatment or control using a pure random assignment (e.g. coin flip). We include extra conditions to reduce contamination, such as: (1) A neighborhood cannot contains treatment and control blocks at the same. (2) if a household replacement needs to be done outside a given block, the new block needs to be located at the same neighborhood.

Blocks (sub-neighborhood levels). In Colombia, cities are divided in neighboords and blocks. The latter are the lowest census unit in urban areas.

Yes

120 blocks located in the 3 cities. That is, 40 for each city.

1200 households

600 households in treatment and 600 households in contril.

0.02 standard deviations