Abstract
Forecasts for many cities and regions in Europe predict a growing share of ‘elderly’ people in the overall population. In addition to this general ageing process, the number of very old people is of specific importance for the issue under discussion. This article looks at sheltered independent housing and living. In particular, the article presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative multidisciplinary study of those facilities in the Netherlands. The research provides insight into the effect of physical scale and group mix on the social quality of sheltered independent housing. The results are based on a desk study of 265 projects and a detailed case study of 24 projects. The quantitative desk study provides reviews related to the time and location (and vice versa) and thus develops a picture of the variation in sheltered independent housing complexes for the period 1998–2010. The findings of the qualitative section in general are that ensuring security and belonging is an important function of sheltered independent housing for residents. Regarding the dimension of physical scale, the responses regarding the desired scale are surprising, with equal support for large as well as small scale. Preferences are strongly related to the location in towns or villages, as the scale surrounding the housing. Regarding group mix, the most important finding is a limit of tolerance between groups, particularly tolerance among vital elderly people towards groups of residents with a mental disability or dementia. This limit seems to be reached much sooner than commonly thought, or deployed on the basis of idealistic motives.
Highlights
The ageing society is a standard in discussions about demographic development and the effect it has on both the changing demand side as well as supply side of our built environments
In addition to differences in the dynamics of the processes, varying between spatial categories, we will see differences in the provision of services, in terms of formats or frequency and, especially, in the health sector. It is in this sector that we find the object of interest in this article: sheltered independent housing for people who are old and in need of various levels of health-related support
We focus on the question whether a wider group mix of various care-needing residents leads to greater integration and a better social quality of housing
Summary
The ageing society is a standard in discussions about demographic development and the effect it has on both the changing demand side as well as supply side of our built environments. In addition to differences in the dynamics of the processes, varying between spatial categories, we will see differences in the provision of services, in terms of formats or frequency and, especially, in the health sector It is in this sector that we find the object of interest in this article: sheltered independent housing for people who are old and in need of various levels of health-related support. Diseases create a parallel phenomenon, with more people in need of care, especially those with Alzheimer’s disease, demanding new standards for living at home, namely assisted living at home These developments come together in cities of all categories and sizes, where we need to create innovative solutions for an ageing society, from intergenerational co-housing (Ache and Fedrowitz 2012) to sheltered independent housing for people in need of care (Spierings 2014)
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