DfCLG 'Roundtable' discussion on Cohousing Communities of older people and the National Strategy for Housing an Ageing Society, October 25 2007

At the end of October this year, a 'roundtable' discussion on Cohousing and the National Strategy for Housing and Aging Society was held at the Dept for Communities and Local Government (DfCLG), under the sponsorship of Baroness Kay Andrews, parliamentary under secretary of state. This discussion was organised by Maria Brenton in conjunction with the department and was a last-minute substitute for a wider symposium that the UK Network had hoped the department would sponsor. It was squeezed in to the departmental timetable days before the impending reshuffle at the end of June this year, as a holding action against the possibility of Baroness Andrews being reshuffled. She is well-disposed towards cohousing, having toured the Community Project last year and is also responsible for issuing the 'Housing Strategy for Older People' in autumn this year. Fortunately, she stayed in post.

Those attending the seminar included a local authority officer, a GLA representative, the chief executive of a housing association already promoting cohousing, a representative from the Housing Corporation, one from the Academy for Sustainable Development, one from the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) in the Dept of Health, an academic and DfCLG civil servants. Also there were Sarah Berger and Maria Brenton from the UK Cohousing Network, Micheline Mason from the Full Circle Group and Avril Fox, an older woman actively pursuing an eco-development in East Anglia. In her introduction, the minister expressed great interest in cohousing, saying that 'I'm persuaded that cohousing meets the department's priorities", that she was "charmed" by her visit to the Community Project which "had a harmonious environment and provided ...such a good model for ways of living". Luke O'Shea gave a brief summary of the main points of the Housing Strategy he is responsible for developing, pointing up the trend for older people to live alone and how they make up half the numbers in new housing growth.

Maria Brenton gave a presentation, setting out the case for cohousing communities of older people to be considered as a desirable model for inclusion in the Strategy. She pointed out that older people should be seen as people who can do things for themselves rather than being 'done unto or for' as in the British tradition; that the age-range of older people's cohousing is mostly in the 60 -75 year age-groups and that the focus of the seminar was on age-peer groups with a wide age-range, although inter-generational communities exist as an option. She further noted that the discussion related to a preferred inclusive model of mixed tenure - for which public finance can be necessary. However, the argument was not necessarily about finding extra resources but about using existing resources in more imaginative and innovative ways
The presentation went on to describe the potential for cohousing to 'create an old-fashioned neighbourhood in a new way' for older people from a range of ages who choose to live together rather than who have to live together. Among its benefits is the scope it offers for activity and involvement based on commitment to an agreed way of life. Not only do cohousing community members enjoy privacy but also the support of friendly neighbours. They control their environment themselves and there is common space in which to meet. In terms of the Older Persons' Housing Strategy, this is a model for a vibrant community which engages and supports older people and helps keep them independent, happy, healthy and active and less in need of care services. In other words, a really 'sustainable community'.

Cohousing offers a striking contrast to the situation of so many older people living alone in anonymous blocks of flats and streets in a city like London or the average sheltered housing complex with its frail residents and underused common facilities. The Strategy's own figures point to a need for cohousing: 'Over 60 per cent of over-85's live alone and older people living alone account for a quarter of total projected year on year household growth currently'.

Although it is difficult to produce a firm evidence base for older people's demand for cohousing, Maria argued that the constant stream of enquiries to the UK Network and the emergence of new groups point towards a demand. Further, she argued, there is an even greater unarticulated demand among older people who may never have heard of cohousing but who would like the sense of living in a resident-led supportive community.

She listed factors stopping cohousing for older people happening as the following:

• The model is not well known in the UK
• Local authorities, housing associations etc don't recognise or understand the concept of cohousing
• So they don't understand its potential benefits for older people
• Ageism and an entrenched tradition of paternalism in relation to older people
• Public authorities deal mostly with poor and very old and frail people - with whom they perpetuate dependency
• Lack of any realistic emphasis of public policy on prevention - all crisis management
• Lack of imagination, flexibility and innovation
• Little tradition of 'bottom-up' active partnership with local people - 'place making' is something agencies do to people not with them
• Lack of capacity building and community development among older people
• A 'disconnect' between professional and organisational skills (setting up financial packages, site finding, contracting and developing, project management etc) - which organisations have - and the community-building skills that ordinary people have

In relation to the last two points, she argued that neither the Academy for Sustainable Communities nor the Community Development Foundation, both bodies funded by the DfCLG, seems to have yet discovered older people.

Finally, Maria suggested what is needed to make cohousing happen:

• For cohousing to be encouraged as a matter of public policy and to be seen as an investment in the wellbeing of older people. This was what Denmark and The Netherlands did to promote cohousing communities of older people & make them socially inclusive
• Specifically, for the DfCLG to sign up to the cohousing community model as an option for investing in a healthy, happy and independent old age and include it as part of its strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society
• For housing providers to focus on people before bricks and mortar
• Active encouragement and incentivisation by central government of local authorities, housing associations and developers to initiate and form partnerships with older people in developing cohousing communities
• For Housing Associations and developers to share their technical skills with grass-roots groups seeking to form cohousing communities
• Community development and capacity building to be focused on older people - outfits like the Academy for Sustainable Communities, The Community Development Foundation, etc to show the way on promoting, facilitating and supporting older people to develop cohousing communities
• Promotion of the concept to older people - the old age organisations could make a positive contribution here.

The discussion brought up the following points among others:

• the issue of how to 'future-proof' sustainable communities - a question to ask Academy for Sustainable Communities
• whether housing co-ops make cohousing communities redundant? Response: housing co-ops are generally formed to provide low cost housing rather than an intentional community as such. They can be very large and scattered over a whole district, without any common space for members to meet together as a group. A cohousing community can take the legal form of a housing co-operative though.
• 'Cohousing communities of older people will never be a mainstream interest in the UK' Response: no-one is suggesting they would be, but they appeal to a significant minority of older people and they at least present a new model over and above the usual ones like sheltered housing etc
• 'Cohousing means I can live with my friends' - 'Does this mean public money is going to be used to set you up with your friends? Response: Cohousing is more about living with friendly neighbours than getting all your friends together - though friendships will be formed. Receipt of public money requires transparent and fair allocation policies without discrimination. The OWCH group have been trained in Equal Opportunities.
• Local authorities need a steer from the Department to encourage cohousing communities.
• The days are gone when central govt. departments can tell local authorities what to do. Response: Couldn't they be encouraged and invited rather than told? The GLA has mentioned cohousing in its Strategy but it could be made much stronger.

In her subsequent letter to Baroness Andrews, Maria Brenton wrote:

"a plea for a strong case for cohousing (plus an explanation and illustration of what it means) to be included in the Strategy as one of a range of possible new models which housing providers can be encouraged to think creatively about.

Housing Associations particularly could benefit from active encouragement to enlist and engage their end-users in developments from the start and to share their skills and expertise with grass-roots community groups. This requires not new resources but for existing resources to be used differently and less paternalistically. It needs to promote adoption of a fresh, 21st century model of active, self-determining old age, not one that continues to owe its origins to the 19th century. The Strategy's appeal for 'aspirational consumer led housing and services', more choice, an emphasis on prevention, 'independent lives in welcoming communities' etc. could otherwise remain just words. And more and more flats will be built for single occupants with no thought for building community.

A suggestion that investment might be encouraged "in community development and capacity building among older people by national organisations resourced by the DfCLG."