Last-time homes & inter-generational communities

Click on the image to watch a recording of the event.

“A major symptom of the housing crisis is the struggle that younger, first-time buyers have to get on the housing ladder; less obvious is the struggle that ‘last-time’ buyers have to find a suitable home,” explained Bishop Guli in her introduction to the Church Housing termly event on May 11th.

“We are currently building age-segregated communities,” explained Bishop Guli. “It’s not intentional, but planners and developers typically focus on first time homes and general needs housing, but don’t include age-appropriate, ‘last-time’ homes for older people.

“And yet we are living in a rapidly ageing society, where loneliness is rife. Nearly half of all people over 75 live alone. Older retired people can end up stuck in family houses that are too large for them, due to the lack of suitable alternatives.”

She then introduced the guest speakers. Lord Richard Best gave us an overview of why we need more specialist housing for older people, and the opportunity for creating intergenerational communities.

Then Karin Voth Harman, a vicar in Cambridge, shared her vision for setting up an intergenerational community - a primary school co-located with retirement housing - as part of a large new housing development in her parish.   

Dan Macpherson, Head of Later Living at the consultancy firm TSA Riley, explained what it takes to plan and build a retirement community. Then we heard directly from a resident of a Housing 21 extra care retirement community. Ian Devereux is a passionate advocate for intergenerational, well-located retirement communities, and shared what it's like from the inside, and how the experience can transform people’s lives.

The 72 attendees had the opportunity to join a breakout group with one of the guest speakers, and then the Bishop of Hull, Eleanor Sanderson, offered some closing reflections on the evening’s theme and presentations.

If you want to delve further into this topic, then an excellent resource is the new ‘Creating Intergenerational Communities’ report from the APPG on Housing and Care for Older People.