Planning and managing public housing stock in the silver economy

Abstract

Many European countries have a large stock of public social housing for low- and middle-income families. The European Partnership for Active and Healthy Ageing report shows that much of this housing stock is unsuitable for the growing number of older residents with declining functional abilities, especially those needing long-term care (LTC) services. The article describes why and to what extent the problem is occurring. Also, we answer the question of what the dynamics of production of such specialized housing units for older adults in need of an LTC should be. We considered the production (masonry) of assisted living units and housing with care for independent and sheltered housing to mitigate the risk of events leading to illness and disability and thus increase the life expectancy of residents if the right housing stock is in place. The model is recommended to determine the dynamics of investment and production of such housing units. Mathematical programming is developed based on geo-gerontological projections of demand. The calculation in R provides us with the optimal dynamics of production and supply in one of the Slovenian regions. The developed model may be of particular interest to other regions and municipalities facing a housing shortage for older adults and increasing demand. The same procedure could also be used to plan the dynamics of constructing facilities in a public-private partnership or some other form of social infrastructure ownership.