Listening Through the Walls: How Qualitative Research Reveals the Human Impact of Better Housing

Urban housing inadequacy remains a silent driver of ill-health, stress, and fractured family relations in Latin America. We evaluate Hogares Saludables—a social innovation by Cementos Argos—across Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla (2023–2024), combining a randomized controlled trial (N=1,200) with a qualitative module we term Home Biographies, which integrates Most Significant Change, photo-elicitation, and body mapping. This mixed-methods design moves beyond “what works” to show how and why physical upgrades to floors, kitchens, and bathrooms reconfigure daily practices, dignity, and agency. We document short-run gains in mental well-being, household harmony, and perceived safety; reductions in women’s unpaid domestic burden; and strengthened social capital through community participation and skills training. Improvements recalibrate residents’ temporal imaginaries—re-signifying past sacrifice and expanding credible futures—thus linking material change to symbolic belonging. We translate these insights into actionable guidance for scaling: align technical choices with lived preferences, embed participatory communication, and leverage on-site training to minimize dropout. By centering beneficiary voice within rigorous causal inference, this study contributes an evaluative blueprint for SDG-aligned housing programs and invites housing scholars to treat home not only as infrastructure, but as a platform for relational and temporal transformation.