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Housing Our Ageing Population
With an ageing UK population, older people are now key players in the wider housing market.
2017
Themes:
Cohousing Communities: A New Age-in-Place Lifestyle
A generally-acknowledged definition of cohousing is an intentional community with privately-owned homes clustered around a shared outdoor and indoor space. This article looks at the development of cohousing models for seniors in the US.
2017
Themes:
Unsettled: Life in Australia's Private Rental Market
Unsettled: Life in Australia's private rental market, makes the case that rental rights in Australia lag far behind those in many other developed countries, where renters often enjoy secure long-term arrangements with strict limits on rent increases.
By contrast, leases in Australia can be as short as six months, and when the contract ends and renters revert to a month-to-month arrangement t
2017
Themes:
Why older Australians don’t downsize and the limits to what the government can do about it
Encouraging senior Australians to downsize their homes is one of the more popular ideas to make housing more affordable. The trouble is, incentives for downsizing would hit the budget, but make little difference to housing affordability. This article looks at government incentives that could release housing stock without financially penalising older home owners.
2017
Themes:
Housing stress 'dire' as elderly Canberra women resort to sleeping in cars
Women more than 80 years old are turning to Canberra's homeless services for shelter, forced out of housing by the ACT's rental market, low savings and family violence.
Homelessness services are reporting a rise in clients who are elderly women, some resorting to sleeping in cars and couch surfing for shelter before seeking help.
2017
Is Housing a Health Insult?
Abstract:
In seeking to understand the relationship between housing and health, research attention is often focussed on separate components of people’s whole housing ‘bundles’.
2017
Themes:
Retirement Homes
Demand for retirement care in the US, including housing, is expected to grow at a fast pace in the coming decades. The probability of needing to rely on living assistance or even long-term full care rises sharply as people age.
2017
Themes:
Four Challenges to Aging in Place
Within 20 years, one in five Americans—almost 80 million people—will be older than 65 and, surveys indicate, they will want to remain in the current homes for as long as possible.
2017
Themes:
Older homeless women’s identity negotiation: agency, resistance, and the construction of a valued self
Although men still outnumber women among the US adult homeless population, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women, including older women, seeking shelter each night.
The concept of ‘home’ is widely associated with women and serves as a source of identity and social order. Thus, homeless older women represent an intersection of stigma.
2017
The ageing population will change demand for housing. In particular, it is likely that more adaptable and specialised housing will be needed.
This document outlines the Policy implications for the UK due to the ageing population's changing demands for housing.
Building suitable new homes and supporting the adaptation of the
existing housing stock will be critical as the population ages. It
is also important that older people can move to a more appropriately sized home with ease.
2017


"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."