Retirement

Co-Housing – is this the future?

Would it bring back a stronger sense of belonging?

You'd know your neighbours and live in a community with a sense of place and environmental sustainability.

Pioneered in Denmark

The co-housing movement began in Denmark, spread to the USA and is now growing in the UK. It is all about restoring a strong sense of belonging and community – very much like the old fashioned neighbourhoods where people all knew and cared for each other. In a co-housing community you have your own private home, but can also share activities and common meals with others, cut costs through joint bulk-buying, share cars and bicycles and have a say in the way that the community is run.

Typically there is a large common house with a shared kitchen, meeting and living space. People don’t live together, but they choose to be part of an intentional community.

Look at the Benefits

This is of particular benefit to older people. Research shows time and time again that there are three key factors associated with longevity:

Eating healthily
Staying active
Staying connected

The last point plays a large part in promoting the other two. What is the point of any of us living in isolated splendour if we feel disconnected and lonely?

Ideal for Baby Boomers

Now that we baby boomers are reaching retirement age we face the shared dilemmas of reduced pensions, dependent children, an uncertain economy and the loss of community. Many of us downsize from large houses to smaller properties in new neighbourhoods, but it can be difficult to get to know people and even more difficult to find a sense of true community. We are also watching the options available to our own parents - that are mostly about being increasingly reliant upon, and at the mercy of, the state.

The Senior Cohousing Handbook

As California architect and author of The Senior Cohousing Handbook says “the oldest of 79 million Baby Boomers turns 63 this year, and they are ‘not interested in what their parents had in terms of assisted care, wasting away in a private house or nursing home’.”

Take Control in a New Way

Cohousing offers an option that is all about taking control of our own lives and that is very exciting. There is already a UK cohousing website on www.cohousing.org.uk where you can see both established groups and ones in development. With David Cameron touting the ‘Big Society’ maybe it is about time that we called for more support for such initiatives.