Two major housing challenges: One intergenerational solution

Housing is a problem for both young and old

There is a shortage of homes in the country and, even more, there is a shortage of homes that local people can afford to rent, let alone to buy.

At the same time we live in a country with an increasingly elderly population and a younger generation often priced out of the housing market. In addition, many older people are struggling to  maintain cumbersome family houses whilst worrying about meeting growing care needs out of dwindling savings.

It is frequently the case that personal care assistants spend a significant proportion of their days travelling between jobs. This results in polluting, costly and stressful travel between neighbourhoods; especially for those employed by care agencies. We urgently need to think of new ways in which we can better meet the needs of older people and their care assistants.  Below are some ideas about ways in which local authorities, developers and private individuals could work together to improve the situation. 

Designating land for flatlets for older people and care assistants

Imagine if local authorities across the country were to designate land for the creation of clusters of two bedroom eco-flatlets. This would allow space for an overnight assistant if and when needed, enabling older people to move out of family sized homes into economical and easier to maintain properties. 

At the same time, local authorities could designate in their local plans that a certain number of flatlets in a given neighbourhood should be earmarked for renting out at an affordable rent for those working as care assistants.

Raising money for accommodation for care assistants by public subscription

Money needed to build these flatlets could be raised by public subscription through schemes such as crowdfunding. Part of the money might be contributed on a voluntary basis from money freed up by the sale of larger properties. Essentially this would be a philanthropic act on the part of any downsizing home owners who can afford it, though it would also be reassuring for  everyone to be aware as they grow older that there will be assistants living  and working in  their neighbourhoods if and when needed! 

These flatlets for care assistants could then be made available in perpetuity as a neighbourhood resource run by trustees on a charitable basis, with the reduced rents paid by personal care assistants being used for the upkeep of the flats. This would be especially valuable in rural areas, where otherwise many older people cannot afford to remain in familiar communities.

Building housing for care assistants into community-based housing initiatives

The ideas outlined above relate to other intergenerational housing initiatives within Europe and North America; also to cohousing, which is a worldwide trend, and initiatives such as Homeshare and LinkAge, in London and Cambridgeshire respectively, in the UK.

Many such approaches offer welcome community-based and more affordable alternatives to older people. However, what is frequently missing is consideration of how care assistance needs will be met, if and when these exceed the bounds of “good neighbourliness”.

This can mean that residents are obliged to move out of communities that they have helped to build up at the point that their care needs require substantial assistance during the day and possibly overnight. 

There are exceptions to this, such as the Humanitus project in the Netherlands, where a small number of student volunteers live rent-free alongside 300 elderly people and care assistants. I have been personally inspired by the example of a cohousing project in Darmstad, Germany, being aware from the outset that a proportion of people in the community would as they grow older develop assistance needs, they included in the design a certain number of flatlets which in the short term will be rented out to students until such time as community members need to employ live-in assistants.

Here in the UK, the issue of safeguarding vulnerable people is an important concern. Given that sheltered housing and private care arrangements remain outside the inspection brief of the Care Quality Commission and unprotected by care laws (File on 4, 23 January 2018), providing subsidised accommodation for care assistants would create potential for building in supervision, safeguarding and training.

Below, I have outlined some of the many advantages of making sure that there are low-maintenance and high eco-spec flatlets in all areas, some with two bedrooms, enabling older people to continue living in familiar neighbourhoods, whilst at the same time setting aside one bedroom flatlets built to the same high eco-spec and yet available at affordable rents solely for use by care assistants for as long as they are working in the neighbourhood.

Advantages for personal care assistants:

• Making it easier for people to live and work in the same area
• Reducing the strain, for example journey times 
• Time and space to eat properly
• Smaller dwellings reduce maintenance and running costs
• Potential for professional development and supervision
• Affordable rents make it possible to build up personal savings

Advantages for people who need assistance:

• Assurance of knowing that well-trained assistants live and work nearby
• Flexibility to alter assistance to match changing needs
• Greater potential for safeguarding 
• Smaller dwellings reduce maintenance and running costs 
• Potential for cost sharing through economies of scale such as neighbourhood heating
• Privacy can be balanced with sociability as desired
• Easier to visit with neighbours

Advantages for national planners and local authorities:

• Making it easier for people to live and work in the same area
• Part of a long term strategy to housing an increasingly elderly population
• Structures can be put in place to provide oversight and assistance
• Safeguards and standards can be built in
• Potential for setting aside at least one flatlet for health and social training
• Freeing up houses lived in by elderly people to return to family use
• Reduction in hospital “bed blocking”, caused when older people cannot safely return to unsuitable housing
• Helping to create and sustain balanced, intergenerational communities

John Harris, freelance Guardian reporter wrote an interesting piece this month. He stated:

“we need to talk about ageing – and it’s about more than the NHS... (opens new window)” 

He usefully highlighted the potential of cohousing in countering the loneliness which many experience in their later years. At the same time, speaking as someone who has needed full-time assistance from a relatively early age myself, I am aware that a certain proportion of the population is bound to have physical assistance needs that cannot be met  purely on the basis of good neighbourliness, nor should they be.  

How sad if people who have helped to create supportive local neighbourhoods and intentional communities such as cohousing have to move out of them at the point that they develop substantial needs. At that point many would find themselves facing the same dismal and restricted living choices that drove them to seek out alternative such as cohousing in the first place!

A pragmatic and, at the same time, creative approach such as that outlined above, providing good and affordable rental accommodation for people working as care assistants, could be used in any neighbourhood which includes a proportion of elderly residents. A new almshouse model, if you like, suited to present day needs.

"We urgently need to think of new ways in which we can better meet the needs of older people and their care assistants"Follow Michele on Twitter - @MC_Coele (opens new window)