Ecological Approaches to an Age-Friendly Portland and Multnomah County

ABSTRACT

Researchers at Portland State University's Institute on Aging (IOA) conducted Portland's age-friendly baseline assessment as part of the original 2006–2007 World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Age-Friendly Cities Project. This article describes the ongoing Portland and Multnomah County age-friendly initiatives, using Menec et al.'s (2011) ecological framework to highlight the interplay between people and environments (i.e., physical, social, and service environments). An overview is provided of Portland's age-friendly community-based research, the evolution and role of the Advisory Council, as well as recent housing policies that have been developed through university-community partnerships.

KEYWORDS:

• Age friendly
• housing
• environments
• ecological framework
• theory
• community-based research
• policy
• partnerships

Notes

¹ Portland is located in Multnomah County and is the county seat.

² The eight domains of age-friendliness detailed by the WHO include outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, and community support and health services.

³ The Portland Plan was a strategic and practical plan to identify short- and long-range goals, with the input of citizens, to determine how the city would focus on the priorities of prosperity, education, health, and equity through 2035 (City of Portland, 2012). This planning process presented numerous opportunities to highlight assets and needs related to older adults within the Portland Plan's many areas of focus.

⁴ Middle housing is a range of multiunit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes that helps meet the growing demand for walkable urban living; examples include duplexes, courtyard apartments, and live/work units (Parolek, n.d.).