“It’s a Great Idea for Other People”: Cohousing as a Housing Option for Older Australians

ABSTRACT

Older Australians face housing challenges including supply, accessibility, affordability, security of tenure and isolation. This article examines the potential for cohousing to address these challenges. In interviews, professionals indicated that cohousing promises benefits for older people, but identified financial and planning barriers. In contrast, focus groups with older people found significant resistance to the concept of shared living; many participants did not see value in cohousing. Resistance stemmed from negative associations with cohousing and cultural lack of familiarity with shared living arrangements. Cohousing has an image problem in Australia that needs to be overcome if it is to thrive.

澳大利亚老年人面临住房供应、可及性、可负担性、租住保障和孤独等方面的问题。本文考察通过合住应对这些问题的 可能性。在采访中，专业人士指出合住的承诺对老年人有利，但目前存在经济和规划方面的障碍。但是在与老年人的座 谈中，我们发现老年人对共同生活的方式非常抵触，参加座谈的许多老年人认为合住毫无意义。这种抵触主要源自合住 可能存在的弊端，以及对共同生活缺少文化准备。澳大利亚人对合住没有好印象，如果希望发展这种居住方式，首先要 解决这一问题。

KEYWORDS:

• Housing
• seniors
• older people
• cohousing
• ageing

Acknowledgements

This research was primarily funded by the NSW Government Department of Family and Community Services through their Liveable Communities Grant, with additional financial support from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. The research team also wishes to acknowledge the contributions from Frouke de Reuver and Lisa Miller at the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, as well as the members of the project’s Advisory Group who provided valuable input to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. While the focus of this research was on older people, one of our research findings is that many of those thinking about cohousing are younger than 60 and so there would be value in including a wider age range in future research.

2. https://the-agency-project.com/about/.

3. http://ecoburbia.com.au/.

4. https://shedders.wordpress.com/tag/co-housing/page/4/.

5. http://www.housing.vic.gov.au/movable-units.

6. http://nightingalehousing.org/the-commons/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a Liveable Communities Grant from the NSW Department of Family and Community Services, with additional financial and in-kind support from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.