The Housing and Living Arrangement Situation of People with Disabilities in Hungary: Regime Characteristics and Individualized Risks

Our study explores the living arrangements of people with disabilities based on life course interviews. Although the focus is mainly on present living arrangement issues and challenges, the research adopts a longitudinal perspective, highlighting the legacies from the state socialist period onwards. The study distinguishes three social policy regimes: state-socialist, liberal, and illiberal, which, on the one hand, had different ideas about disability, while on the other hand, applied housing arrangement policies. Results suggest that the living arrangements of people with disabilities depend on a number of aspects that our interviewees cannot control. Based on the interviews, we identified three key areas which play an especially important role in shaping the living arrangement opportunities of people with disabilities. These are the resources and motivations of the family of origin, the geographical location of the residence, and the institution managers, care workers, and roommates around them.