Age-specific housing in Australia for low to

moderate income older people

Dr Catherine BridgeAHURI UWS/UNSW Research Centre

Growing Older With A Disability (GOWD)

G3.3 Liveable Communities

The research questions that direct this project are:

1.What is the nature of the age-specific housing market in Australia at present?

2.What factors have influenced the provision of particular types of age-specific housing products?

3.Should policies and regulations be modified to create more suitable age-specific housing options and, if so, what changes should be made?

Research questionsResearch Questions

Research DesignThis research project was divided into five stages:

1.literature review and policy review of the Australian age-specific housing market

2.quantitative profile of the housing market and its consumers

3.questionnaire survey of age-specific housing providers and older residents of age-specific housing

4.107 qualitative interviews with older people in age-specific housing, housing providers, and key policy stakeholders, and

5.public engagement via 3 public forum across 3 States (NSW, Victoria and Western Australia).

Definitions Age specific housing: Accommodation or dwellings

that have been specifically constructed for, modified for, or allocated to older people.

Focusing on those housing types that include a rental component

Older people: Over 60 years. Three age cohorts: 60 to 74, 75 to 84, and 85+

Low to moderate income: up to 120 per cent of the median household income in Australia (includes people who rely on full Age Pension and those that receive part pension plus income up to 120%).

Background to research

There is a growing need for housing that can adequately encompass the care requirements of Australia’s ageing population.Rising housing costs particulary in town centres and capital citiesUndersupply of social housingCapped supply of Commonwealth residential aged care bedsDecline of affordable rental options.

Background to research

Just over 20 per cent of Australians 65 years or older do not own their own homes (ABS, 2006). 73.8 % of all people aged 65 or older rely on government income supplementation (ABS, 2008).

Older persons with no savings and little or no superannuation to draw on often have minimal capacity to cover any increase in housing and living costs, particularly if they are not outright homeowners.

Cont…Cont.

Age-specific housing models in Australia

Retirement villages• Not for profit • For profit

Assisted living villages Community housing (includes housing co-

operatives, congregate housing, housing associations, aged rental options)

Mobile home communities (includes manufactured home villages, residential parks and caravan parks)

Boarding houses/Rooming houses

Projected Tenure for Population Aged 65+, 2006 - 2051, Australia

Source: ABS, 2003; ABS, 2007

Projected income for population aged 65+, 2006 - 2051, Australia

Q1= the persons in the lowest income quintile come to represent the majority of aged 65 and over in 2051 (87.2%)

Q5= highest income quintile

Source: ABS custom data, 2010

Q5

Q1

Accommodation Providers Survey Results

Accommodation Providers: Location by state

Accommodation Providers: Finance arrangementsfinancial models were extremely varied and are described below:The simplest was community rental where residents paid a fixed percentage of their income in rent (between 25-30%) and a bond as directed by their local Residential Tenancies Act (which are State based). The residents usually paid for their own utilities.Residents of Independent Living Units (not in retirement villages) often paid an up-front non-refundable donation and then paid a proportion of their income in rent (again usually between 25-30%). They also usually paid for their own utilities.In the mobile home sector, some residents paid a weekly rental, whilst other owned their own mobile home and paid an administration fee to the managers of their establishment.

Retirement villages most financially complex Leases: the resident is given a long-term lease for a fixed term in return for

payment of an upfront lump sum, often referred to as an in-going contribution.

Licenses: the resident is given the right to occupy the unit for a fixed term in return for payment of a lump sum, or in-going contribution. The in-going contribution is repayable, subject to deductions, when the resident leaves the village or dies.

Body corporate units and strata titles: The resident purchases the unit/property and contributes to the maintenance of the common areas.

Company titles: the resident buys shares in a company whose articles of association permit them to live in the unit.

Unit trusts: the trustee is the legal owner of the property and the resident buys a unit trust in return for being allowed to occupy the property.

Age of dwelling stock

Accommodation Providers: Age-appropriate design features

Accommodation Providers: Provision of care services

Accommodation Providers:Responses to care needs Care arrangements are managed separately from

accommodation arrangements. No care available so no strategy in place. Our units are for residents who can live independently. If this

is not possible we ask the family to assist to relocate the resident.

Community nursing is available as recognised by residents own doctors and families

Care is normally provided by the immediate family. Residents are put in touch with Community Care providers,

including our own Community Care section Community Aged Care Packages; Domestic assistance etc.

Transition for residents of retirement villages to residential care“Nobody can do that. It's not legal. Residential aged care places are allocated on a needs basis. There's nothing to do with where you come from. The government assesses those needs and approves applicants, so you can't make that guarantee. That said, people feel like because the village that you're in has got the residential aged care facility than that's a good security thing. The likelihood is that when you need it you probably will be able to move into there but you can't guarantee it.” (PR4)

Low-Income Older RentersSurvey and Interview Results

Older respondants age

Older People: Location

Income Sources

Housing types

Housing availability and choice

One resident of a not for profit retirement village sums up a common sentiment amongst older people who have transitioned to age-specific housing:

“We lost a few things: we lost our location, we lost our view; but we gained in security and [a situation] where people were mainly of the same interests and age” (R18, NSW).

“We are of a generation who knew how to get by.” “What happens when suddenly we can't cope? That's in

the lap of the gods. I don't know what will happen.” “Over a period of time I've become poorer and poorer than

I expected because the CPI as you well know has been low for a long, long time.”

“It’s not too bad. If you conserve properly. If you eat [cheaply at home], not go out and buy.”

“Will I be able to afford to go? Will it have to be right outside the city - too far for my son or my family to visit me? It does sneak into my mind and that’s why I don’t want to live too long.”

Affordability

Need for age-specific housing “We spent some years in our own home but when it came to

coming in here we put our name down because I’d had a heart attack and my husband had both knees replaced and we struck an emergency.”

“Now here I have rails in the shower and near the toilet.” “Actually these communities, these villages, or retirement

villages, semi-retirement villages are very good for older people.”

“There is obviously a strong demand. The rooms don’t stay vacant for long.”

“I had a number of operations and had to live with my children. I talked to my sister and she said, why don’t you [contact a charity]?”

Design features sought

Defects noted

Accesibilitity features of the were also considered The top features were rated as either important or very important by more than 25% of respondents, handrails/grabrails leading the field at 54%, by hob-less shower (48%), ramped or flat entry (44%), emergency call facilities (48%) and wider doors (25%).

Attitudes to sharing space In the small number of cases (76 respondents or 9%

of respondents) where people had to share a room (not with their partner), about two thirds were unhappy and less than 10 percent were happy about it.

On the other hand where people had to share living facilities (i.e. dining room, kitchen, laundry etc.), only 15% were unhappy with the situation.

Location: Services avialable within 500 metres of dwelling

Care Services wanted

“They have a lady who comes around and assesses you every so often”

“Some of them are entirely on their own, they’ve got no one.”

“We’re always there for each other and we’re always willing to give a hand to anybody else who needs it.

“If he gets to the stage of wanting more care we have a hostel here. That’s where you get your meals provided and you live in a little place and they really look after you. Then if you go beyond that and you need to be in a nursing home we have our own nursing home a couple of hundred yards down the road.”

Care provision

Care provision cont. “There is none offered by the management in any shape

or form at all. So one-on-one resident association type thing, just through friendship.”

“We do get our lawns mowed and our bins taken out and taken round the back for us each week.

“There are many accidents waiting to happen in my humble opinion.”

“They utilise the village bus and sometimes they will hire a bus from outside sources for an outing.”

“We’ve also got activity staff that arrange activities within the village and outside the village.”

Legislation and policy “The state legislation gives an enormous amount of power

to the park owners. Very little power to the individual.” “Unfortunately so many of them are not aware of their

rights and are easily intimidated by management and owners.”

“The Retirement Villages Association have powerful legal guns that we as residents are not privy to. They also have great sway with government.”

“The government failed to include in the legislation the proper interpretations of the legislation as it stands at the moment… each side is pushing their own interpretation.”

Policy Interviews

“There is a general approach of supporting people to stay at home.”

“We’ve got new design requirements… They incorporate a recommendation that there be 50% universal design in housing projects. A large proportion of the nation building projects incorporate universal design features.”

“We have age specific housing in public housing to cater for the ageing population. It’s been quite an overt policy”

“In terms of discrete policies, apart from residential park homes legislation, which is being looked at now... there's not much on the radar at all”

Policies and legislation

“For renters in the private sector obviously affordability and suitability are the difficulties. And housing design… a lot of older social housing stock is probably not always suitable.”

The lack of [social housing] stock in appropriate places is certainly an issue.

“Even with rental assistance and the Commonwealth subsidies and so on, it’s quite hard for people to get the sort of housing they want in the location they want.”

“A very high proportion of [low income older people] are spending well in excess of 30% of their income on rent

Barriers to adequate housing

There will be increased demand for social housing for older people.”

“Older people generally are more reliant on the social housing sector than other groups in the population. We have a high representation of older people in social housing, particularly Aboriginal people”

“This country historically has not clearly addressed social housing. It's gone backwards since the mid '80s. The levels of stock have diminished. The amount of direct funding has gone backward. It's not a vote winner... I think we're in for a bleak time in the next five years.”

Social and community housing

“Low to middle income earners need infrastructure. They need local shops, they need local parks, they need places that they can get to easily either by a very short accessible bus route or that they can walk to. [They need] medical centres and hospitals.”

“To what extent do you provide housing in older persons communities, and then how do you make sure that people remain connected to the wider community?”

“It isn’t just about bricks and mortar. It’s about accessibility; it’s about lifestyle; it’s about nutrition; it’s about medical; it’s about home care service; it’s about… the capacity for lower to middle income older people to access these services.

Integration and coordination

Want more information? For more information about this research, the

following publications are available:Positioning Paper

Summarises literature and policy contextFinal Report

Summarises policy findings and conclusionsResearch and Policy Bulletin

Visithttp://www.ahuri.edu.au/publications/projects/p70589/

www.ahuri.edu.au