Housing for elderly people – cross-national differences and similarities

1. Housing for elderly people – cross-national differences and similarities HSA Annual Conference 2012, University of York, Dr. Harald Stoeger, University of Linz, Austria

2. The topic area • Housing for elderly people: increasingly important topic area, perceived as a key common challenge of “ageing societies”. • It attracts interest from various academic disciplines (gerontology, health sciences, housing studies). • It is an increasingly salient issue for policy makers: hence it is vital to understand how different housing systems respond to it.

3. The research approach • The research addresses how the old-age housing problem is framed in different country-specific settings. • Housing for elderly is an elusive and contested policy issue. • Discourse analysis: puts the emphasis on competing policy frames and narratives (“storylines” > Hajer) and their impacts of policy outcomes.

4. The construction of the problem/solution • three competing discourses: • “institutional care” storyline: elderly people as frail, immobile, dependent; the housing issue is constructed in narrow terms, with emphasis on the relocation to “nursing homes”. • “independent living” storyline: elderly people as capable of living alone, but housing is seen as “unfit”: hence focus on barrier-free and “service integrated dwellings” + “smart homes”.

5. The construction of the problem/solution • “Multigenerational communities”: elderly as active, choice-oriented, interested in social connectedness and participation; • Housing is seen as a contributor to multigenerational communities; adequate housing can promote communication, social relationships, support etc. • Emphasis is put on better cooperation between different policy realms and on direct participation

6. Policy effects • “institutional care”: public investments in new nursing homes offering high quality institutional care, in both Germany and Austria. • “independent living”: public funding for improving the “fitness” of the housing stock. • “multigenerational communities”: special neighbourhood development programmes in Germany, with a focus on the role of housing for promoting multigenerational communities.

7. Conclusions • Competing frames/discursive storylines that inform policy outcomes to a varying extent. • Growing emphasis on the comprehensive idea of multigenerational communities, with housing as a (key) factor. • Integration of widely disconnected policy realms and actors, participation of residents. • Mind the constraints! (shrinking funding, lack of interest of local authorities, housing providers etc.)