Access to decent housing has turned into one of the main challenges for Young people in Spain. So is brought out in the Habitar la incertidumbre: vivienda, juventud y malestar estructural (Inhabiting uncertainty: housing, youth, and structural discomfort) report, made by Oxfam Intermón, along with the Spanish Young Council (CJE) and Fad Juventud.

The study analyses the relation between the difficulties to access to housing, the economic precariousness, and the emotional welfare of young people. Among the conclusions, it stands out that 42 % of people between 25 and 34 years affected by the housing crisis describe their mental health as poorly or bad.

Besides, emotional discomfort increases significantly among those people who must allocate a great part of their incomes to pay for housing.
The report remarks that the economic overstrain associated to housing not only makes young emancipation difficult, but it also determines other dimensions of daily life, such as the saving ability, planning future projects, or building an independent career. Residential difficulties appear along with feelings of uncertainty, worrying, and sustained stress.

Additionally, data shows that housing crisis affects youth unequally. People living on a rented house, with a more precarious employment situation, or suffering more economic difficulties, experience higher vulnerability levels and worse indicators of emotional welfare. 

The report invites to understand youth mental health from a structural perspective, in which factors like access to housing, labour conditions, or emancipation opportunities turn into key elements for young people to develop life projects.

The Youth Chair at the Universitat de València considers that these kinds of research provide relevant evidence for understanding contemporary youth transitions and reinforce the need for designing comprehensive public policies that connect housing, employment, mental health, and youth welfare.