Ageing Well at Home
A Research Briefing by the Housing Europe Observatory
12 May 2021 | Published in Research, Future of the EU & Housing
The Observatory of Housing Europe presents volume 5 of the series 'Housing in the post-2020 EU'. This edition highlights how public, cooperative and social housing providers accommodate the elderly by tackling other social phenomenons, such as social isolation, digital connectivity, delivery of health and care services, and more. The briefing also brings to the surface the lessons learnt for policymakers, as well as what could the EU do to ensure that people are allowed to age well at home.
Europe's population is getting older. At a time when data on ageing and life expectancy already pointed towards a clear need to adapt current and future housing to this trend, the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need for homes that will allow us to age with dignity and for supporting measures to help tackling social isolation.
What does this mean for the public, cooperative, and social housing sector? The OECD highlights that “[...] a larger share of elderly tenants in social housing implies a need to adapt the dwelling, surrounding environment and support services to residents”. In other words, this means that housing providers have to adapt both their buildings and the complementary services and that they provide to residents.
Throughout 2020, Housing Europe has been exchanging with its member organisations and collecting examples of how the public, cooperative and social housing sector across Europe is tackling this challenge and the innovative practices that can be scaled up – which we summarise below.