Assessing social quality of sheltered independent housing: challenges of scale and group mix

Forecasts for many cities and regions in Europe predict a growing share of ‘elderly’ people in the overall population. In addition to this general ageing process, the number of very old people is of specific importance for the issue under discussion. This article looks at sheltered independent housing and living. In particular, the article presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative multidisciplinary study of those facilities in the Netherlands. The research provides insight into the effect of physical scale and group mix on the social quality of sheltered independent housing. The results are based on a desk study of 265 projects and a detailed case study of 24 projects. The quantitative desk study provides reviews related to the time and location (and vice versa) and thus develops a picture of the variation in sheltered independent housing complexes for the period 1998–2010. The findings of the qualitative section in general are that ensuring security and belonging is an important function of sheltered independent housing for residents. Regarding the dimension of physical scale, the responses regarding the desired scale are surprising, with equal support for large as well as small scale. Preferences are strongly related to the location in towns or villages, as the scale surrounding the housing. Regarding group mix, the most important finding is a limit of tolerance between groups, particularly tolerance among vital elderly people towards groups of residents with a mental disability or dementia. This limit seems to be reached much sooner than commonly thought, or deployed on the basis of idealistic motives.