This article presents and discusses some of the intergenerational cohabitation programs now active around the world, tracing their salient characteristics and account for their variety. These programs are aimed at matching individuals not belonging to the same family so that they live under the same roof, sharing domestic spaces and daily life, in most cases exchanging goods and services on a temporary basis or for a long time. Homesharing is defined in different ways in different contexts but it can essentially be described as an exchange of services in which a homeholder offers accommodation to a homesharer for an agreed level of aid and, in some cases, for a modest sum to pay for utilities. Homesharing schemes consist of formulas that allow people to be twinned under one roof to share the costs of a house and help each other. This kind of cohabitation is managed by organizations embedded in various sectors, be they universities, trade unions, foundations, NGOs or private agencies. Most of them involve young adults and elderly people in an intergenerational housing experience able to maintain the last at home for a longer period of time. Also, unprecedented synergies are created between different housing-related needs that are based on and coped through sharing living spaces. This article is based on fieldwork extended between 2015 and 2019, a time-lapse in which I interviewed professionals working in homesharing schemes around the world (in some cases more than once) in order to analyze their changes and evolution. It also draws on a review of the organization’s websites, grey materials, reports and of the existing specific literature, which is really poor and undeveloped, both in academia and outside it. It’s aimed at contributing to the understanding of this eccentric way of living and supporting each other. Here I offer a good description of programs aiming to fill the gap in the academic domain due to the fact that very little has been written about intergenerational homesharing.

“Intergenerational Homesharing, a growing response to housing and social support needs”, paper presented at the 4th Transforming Care Conference, Copenhagen, 24-26 June 2019.

G. Costa
2019-01-01

Abstract

This article presents and discusses some of the intergenerational cohabitation programs now active around the world, tracing their salient characteristics and account for their variety. These programs are aimed at matching individuals not belonging to the same family so that they live under the same roof, sharing domestic spaces and daily life, in most cases exchanging goods and services on a temporary basis or for a long time. Homesharing is defined in different ways in different contexts but it can essentially be described as an exchange of services in which a homeholder offers accommodation to a homesharer for an agreed level of aid and, in some cases, for a modest sum to pay for utilities. Homesharing schemes consist of formulas that allow people to be twinned under one roof to share the costs of a house and help each other. This kind of cohabitation is managed by organizations embedded in various sectors, be they universities, trade unions, foundations, NGOs or private agencies. Most of them involve young adults and elderly people in an intergenerational housing experience able to maintain the last at home for a longer period of time. Also, unprecedented synergies are created between different housing-related needs that are based on and coped through sharing living spaces. This article is based on fieldwork extended between 2015 and 2019, a time-lapse in which I interviewed professionals working in homesharing schemes around the world (in some cases more than once) in order to analyze their changes and evolution. It also draws on a review of the organization’s websites, grey materials, reports and of the existing specific literature, which is really poor and undeveloped, both in academia and outside it. It’s aimed at contributing to the understanding of this eccentric way of living and supporting each other. Here I offer a good description of programs aiming to fill the gap in the academic domain due to the fact that very little has been written about intergenerational homesharing.
2019
cohabitation programs
homesharing
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1107958
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact