comment Housing needs a silver lining
The shortage of suitable housing is not just affecting the younger generation, says ESTHER RANTZEN, but offering a better choice of property for older people may actually be the answer the crisis needs
The Silver Line – a free, confidential service, open 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year – we have heard from thousands of older people, with 500 new callers ringing every day. They contact us for all kinds of reasons. We offer information, friendship and advice, because loneliness carries a stigma, and this generation tell us that they don’t want to be a burden. They don’t complain, but we encourage them to talk about their lives. And the biggest single problem they suffer from is loneliness. The World Health Organisation tells us that loneliness seriously damages the health – as badly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day; worse than obesity. I believe that the mental and emotional impact is even more lethal. A couple in their eighties recently threw themselves from the 10th floor of their tower block. He had lost his sight, as many older people do, and they dreaded being separated, and put into a care home. How many elderly suicides are caused by the fact that they live in the wrong homes?
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The cliché is that we should all be allowed to stay in our family homes until we die. I don’t believe it. That would not have suited me. Some may choose it, but think tank Demos recently
or older people, the right house can transform their lives. The wrong house can kill them. It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity. Since the launch of
that there are no lead pipes, and that the roof won’t leak – or at least, won’t leak soon. You may say that’s all very well for an ex-fat cat in television, I can afford to buy a nice flat. But most of my generation have scrimped and saved all their lives, and now own their homes. They have capital locked up in their bricks and mortar, what they lack is choice. There is a disgraceful lack of housing appropriate for older people. Planners are prioritising first-time buyers and young families, without realising that if they provide good, appropriate housing for old ladies (or gentlemen) like me, living on our own and rattling around in homes far too big for us, we will move out and free up valuable housing for the young families who desperately need it. It’s win, win. So why don’t planners understand that? They suffer from ageist prejudice. They fear that an influx of older people will cause a huge strain on their health provision. Nonsense. Old people get stretchered into hospital when they fall down stairs, or suffer hypothermia in draughty houses they can’t afford to heat. Flats like mine – no stairs, easy to heat – preserve active healthy old age. What’s more, old people like living on brownfield sites, in the centres of towns, where there are good public transport links and banks, chemists and grocer shops. Old people keep town centres alive and vital. Another win, win.
Planners are prioritising first-time buyers and families, without realising that if they provide appropriate housing for old ladies like me we will free up valuable housing for young families who desperately need it. It’s win, win
surveyed the older population and discovered that 3.5 million people over 60 would like to move into somewhere smaller, but there is nowhere for them to go. I was lucky. When I began to rattle around my family house, with its five empty bedrooms and a Victorian maze of lead pipes threatening to leak into my walls, I found a snug flat that suited my needs far better. I have my own front door, but vigilant porters greet me as I come and go. There is a pool and a gym. There is a community I am getting to know. It’s a new build, so I have faith
18| January 2014 showhouse
How expensive is it? Good-quality housing of course costs more than jerry-built shanty towns. But go to Denham Village, built by Anchor Trust, and you will see a mix of housing centred on a doctor’s surgery and a “village hall”. There are so many activities going on that families and the local community are constantly in and out. No isolation here. There is a bistro café, and a pub, and the bus stops at the entrance. Residents told me that they had felt isolated and alone in their old homes, but here they feel that old age is like a holiday.
Esther Rantzen at the What House? Awards
Mind you, it was sunny when I went to visit Denham. But when I visited a social housing project in Ormskirk the skies were black with storm clouds and it was starting to drizzle. Inside, a choir – a group called Singing for the Brain organised by the Alzheimer’s Society – was singing Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head. Patients and carers were singing together, all with smiles on their faces, turning the clock back with music from the 1960s. The Alzheimer’s Society has a centre in the building, and there is a hairdresser’s and a bistro. There is also a ‘champion’ on every corridor, who knocks on each flat’s front door every morning to wish the resident a good morning. Independence, privacy but no isolation.
I had a letter recently from a lady called Irene. She is almost blind, and recently lost her husband. She is alone for the first time, deeply depressed, and frightened. We have arranged for one of our Silver Line Friends (volunteers we train to make regular friendship calls) to ring her every week. But that’s not what she needs. She wrote to say all she wants to do is sell her house in Blackburn, and move into sheltered housing where she will feel safe, and have company when she wants it. Not much to ask, but too much for Blackburn to be able to supply, because old people come bottom of our national agenda. How stupid is that? Keep our old people safe and happy in homes that suit them, and they will become a national resource, using their lifetime of skills to work for charity, and help other people. Irene is already designing cards for The Silver Line. Older people don’t want to become a burden: they could be a national treasure, given the right housing. Win, win, win. Esther Rantzen is founder of The Silver Line. 0800 4 70 80 90.
www.thesilverline.org.uk
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