senior cohousing

Lifetime Community Project

admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:36:44 +0000

We plan to create a cohousing community in West Yorkshire, for people who want a co-operative and self-responsible life style for their later years. Our community will support members to grow older together, to “age in place” safely and enjoyably. The community will include 12 – 20 homes with shared facilities such as a large dining room, recreation areas, laundry, workshops and gardens. There will be a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability.

We want to engage local people’s interest and involvement in the LifeTime project, so that we remain part of the wider community. We will be a model of a supportive and accessible age-in-place community, encouraging other older people to consider such projects for themselves. We shall raise the profile of this kind of housing project with policy makers and service providers.

You can contact us via the contact form link above. See below for more information about the Lifetime Community Project.

Vivarium, Fife

admin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:29:29 +0000

Vivarium is for people who choose to live in a positive, co-operative and responsible manner with family, friends, neighbours and the environment.

Recent research shows that housing options for older people are limited and do not meet the needs of a population who are increasingly active, and who are seeking to retain their full cognitive faculties for as long as possible whilst wishing to enjoy a sense of dignity and self worth. It is against this backdrop that Vivarium was born.

The pilot project will be for older people who recognise the difficulties of living in rural areas. These are people who will choose to live in a co-operative fashion and continue to contribute in a meaningful way to society. Vivarium members hope to remain active and involved in life for as long as possible, not simply to be provided for and be dependent upon health care support mechanisms.

Vivarium membership groups will be self managing and members will be involved in the decision making process throughout.
Vivarium members will have a desire to live in a co-operative manner, sharing resources thus going someway to alleviating problems of food and fuel poverty.
Communal areas are integral to the concept of cohousing, providing areas where residents can meet and feel part of the community.
This concept can be applied inter- generationally and to any "common interest groups".

For more information, please visit our website or contact Hugh Hoffman, Vice Chairman, The Vivarium Trust on 01337-831403. E-mail Hugh via his contact form.

Older Womens Cohousing, London

admin — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:01:13 +0000

The Older Women's Cohousing project was set up by a small group of women in 1998 with the aim of building a Cohousing Community in London along the lines of a model developed by older people in the Netherlands. We are a mixed tenure group of women over fifty and have as a development partner the housing association Housing for Women. They are helping us to locate a suitable site and to enlist the support of a larger housing association in developing it for us.

Older Women’s Cohousing Project, London - Press release July 2009

admin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:49:47 +0100

Older Women’s Cohousing Project, London and the UK Cohousing Network

14 July 2009.

Amid all the discussion on today’s Green Paper on Adult Social Care, it needs to be recognised that government - and all those public and private sector bodies agonising about society’s ageing and the future of health and social care services –continue to neglect a much overlooked resource for limiting future costs – the energies, drives and preferences of older people themselves.

Older Womens Cohousing, London

Yorkshire smallholding available with potential for senior cohousing

admin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:34:50 +0100

Smallholding near Selby in Yorkshire available for cohousing development
Senior(ish) Cohousing

Myself and my husband are in our early fifties, and live on a 5 acre rural smallholding with a huge greenhouse (over 2 acres!) near Selby in Yorkshire. We grow strawberries and tomatoes which we sell to local farm shops, box schemes and at farmers’ markets. My husband works full time on the smallholding, whilst I have a full time job and help out at evenings and weekends.

However, there’s just too much work for two of us, so we are looking for like-minded people who are passionate about great-tasting food, who care about the environment and would jump at the chance of living in the countryside.

Article in USA TODAY about senior cohousing

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:51:02 +0100

American news company USA TODAY have run an article about senior cohousing.

You can find the full story here.

Cohousing Communities for Older People

Maria Brenton — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:48:31 +0000

Another article by Maria Brenton called 'Cohousing Communities for Older People'. Published in M.Field
(ed) Thinking about CoHousing, Diggers & Dreamers

Choosing and managing your own community in later life

Maria Brenton — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:45:20 +0000

An article by Maria Brenton called 'Choosing and managing your own community in later life' which was published in K.Sumner (ed) Our homes, our lives: choice in later life living arrangements. London, Centre for Policy on Ageing/ Housing Corporation.

CoHousing Communities of Older People

Maria Brenton — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:40:03 +0000

An article by Maria Brenton, 'CoHousing Communities of Older People'. Published in S.Peace & C.Holland, (eds) Inclusive Housing in an Ageing Society, Bristol, Policy Press.

Senior cohousing: "what is all this extra life for?"

admin — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:06:54 +0100

The fate of older people in British society is rising up the political agenda. This week, Gordon Brown launched New Labour's call for a 'fairer care system'. The government predicts that a quarter of the UK will be over 65 in twenty years, and the number of people over 85 will double.

A recent opinion piece by Julia Neuberger in the Daily Mail laments the way our society treats its older people, and notes that cohousing is one possible answer to the question, 'what is all this extra life *for*?' Gordon Brown seems to have taken on board that people don't want to pour their equity into the pockets of a nursing home. Cohousing is clearly a way for older people to invest in their own continued independence. The mutual support inherent to cohousing could also save the state a huge amount of money. Has senior cohousing's time come?