Imane Rachidi |
The Hague (EFE) They help them combat loneliness, or with domestic chores.
It is a scheme to promote “intergenerational coexistence” and encourage greater contact between young tenants and the older ones in society, an approach that serves to partially address the challenges that the Netherlands faces in providing care and support to the aging population. , while also addressing the needs of the younger generation to find affordable housing.
The Minister for Long-Term Care and Sport, Connie Helder, has launched the proposal and has opened an online consultation until June 23 to hear what people have to comment on this plan, before giving it the final green light.
With this subsidy, room rents in residential complexes for the elderly can be reduced by 200 euros per month for young tenants between the ages of 18 and 30 “who want to actively contribute to the quality of life and interaction” between generations, which would foster a sense of community, mutual benefit and understanding.
Contribute to the interaction between generations
“We are seeing a relatively increasing number of older people (in the country), fewer health care personnel to care for them, housing shortages, and loneliness among young people. With this plan, we can offer affordable housing to youth, and they will always be able to strike up a conversation or visit someone in the complex,” Helder described.
For older people, having young people living nearby “gives them more vitality” and incidentally “additional help and support” if they require it; therefore, young and old “can mean a lot to each other and learn from each other, and, furthermore, living together side by side also generates a greater understanding between them”, explains the minister.
The idea is that the young tenant and the elderly landlord come to an agreement in the rental agreement on how they could cooperate. On the list is, for example, cooking together, helping with small chores around the house, taking a walk with the residents, playing a board game together, doing the shopping or helping with basic care, such as managing eye drops.
In exchange for this, the landlord, such as a housing corporation or elderly care organization, receives 200 euros per rented room per month from the government to lower the rent for young tenants who agree to cooperate.
More than 5 million euros for the program
This year, the Dutch cabinet will allocate €5.2 million to this programme, doubling it next year, after which the amount will increase structurally to €49 million per year. The ultimate goal, says the minister, is to “increase cohesion and quality of life” in areas where many older people reside.
The Executive recalls that research shows that intergenerational contact, such as engaging in conversation often, playing and eating together, increases the health and well-being of the elderly. Of the 17.8 million inhabitants in the Netherlands, some 3.6 Millions are over 65 years old. The average age in the country is 42.4 years (in 1975, it was 33.2 years), according to the CBS national statistics office.
An example on which this plan is based is the Het Ouden Huis residential complex, which opened its doors in mid-2021.
This location, managed by a resident nurse, welcomes about forty elderly people, in about thirty rental houses, with a shared kitchen and living room, and houses two or three young students, who rent a room and live with the elderly In day to day.
Het Ouden Huis, an initiative of the Fundis care network and specially designed to combat loneliness among the elderly, is a housing concept for elderly people who are still independent and have low or medium incomes who, for example, have lost their partner.