Hwang, E

Hwang, E.

Symposium

Age Friendly Communities: Addressing the Housing Domain

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Brossoie, N.

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Parrott, K.

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Ahn, M.

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Lee, S.

The majority of seniors want to stay in their lifetime homes and communities (known as aging-in-place) even when their physical and cognitive function declines. Creating more supportive environments has been an emerging challenge for many countries addressing aging-in-place. Responding to this, the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) has recently established the Global Age-Friendly Cities Initiative (AFCI) and over 500 communities worldwide have been involved with AFCI. The key elements of AFCI include affordable and accessible housing, walkable and safe communities and transportation, accessible services, recreational and cultural activities, and civic engagement for active participation. Although the AFCI includes social aspects of our environment, the focus of this symposium is on the domain of housing as existing studies have shown that removing environmental barriers is important in meeting the needs of seniors for aging-in-place.

 

This symposium is particularly interested in the efforts of communities’ responses to accessible and affordable housing issues in the United States and South Korea. The first presentation discusses housing modification projects in addressing age friendly priority areas. The regional interest of the first presentation is in Southwest Virginia communities in the U.S. The second presentation analyzes the needs of low-income older renters living in subsidized housing in a North Carolina community in the U.S., in an effort to address affordable housing issues in Greensboro. The third presentation will highlight housing related themes and priorities identified in age friendly studies conducted in rural Texas communities. The forth presentation will demonstrate barriers related to the housing domain based on older adults’ own assessments in provincial wide age friendly projects in Jeju, South Korea. Finally, the fifth presentation will share a story of decaying coal mining communities’ efforts to create their communities more age friendly and role of unique housing developments.

 

Presenter 1:

Deferred Maintenance, Family Demands, and Unmet Needs: Key Challenges for Home a Modification & Repair Program by Nancy Brossoie

Approximately ninety percent of older adults in the United States want to remain living in their homes for as long as possible. Yet, their homes may not be designed to accommodate their needs and may need to be modified as well as repaired. Process evaluation data from a rural home modification pilot program as a priority area of Age Friendly Communities in Southwest Virginia was analyzed to identify the administrative challenges faced in identifying, prioritizing, and initiating home modification projects. The means-based program served 16 homeowners aged 55+ living at or below 80% of the adjusted median income. Analysis uncovered challenges to program management and sustainability. Program leaders reported most homes had not been maintained and thus struggled with modifying them when the values were less than the costs of modification and repair. Most homes also had additional repairs that needed to be completed to make the home safe and energy efficient. Leaders were also challenged to complete requested changes when confronted by non-custodial family members with well-intended demands that conflicted with resident wishes. Findings were used to develop a formal program that could account for the competing demands of residents and their families, contractors, and program resources and sustainability.

 

Presenter 2:

Housing Insecurity Challenges Aging in Place for Low-income Renters

Kathleen R. Parrott, Sung-Jin Lee, Daejin Kim, Valerie L. Giddings, & Sheryl Renee Robinson

In-depth interviews (N=25) were conducted with low-income, aging renters in a southeastern United States urban area, in an effort to understand the community’s age friendliness. Annual income was less than $25,000 for 24 respondents. The sample was predominately female (n=17) and African-American (n=23). Age of respondents ranged from 61 to 86 (mean = 71.4). Marital status varied: married=5; never married=4; and previously married=16. Twenty-four respondents reported 63 different health issues, many that limit mobility and/or independent living. All respondents relied on government income support and none reported paid employment. Eight interviewees had relatives living with them. Only 12 respondents lived in subsidized or age-restricted senior housing. This data suggests future insecurity for these low-income renters to age in place in their current living situation. The research presentation will be supported by qualitative comments from study participants.

 

 

Presenter 3:

Supporting Aging in Community: Exploring the Needs for Community-Based Resources of Rural Older Residents

Mira Ahn

There has been a growing concern about the value of aging-in-place. Major reasons stemmed from doubt regarding the positive relationships of aging-in-place when considering the physical and psychological well-being of older adults. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish a conceptual and practical framework for creating aging-friendly communities in rural Texas. Compared to urban areas, rural areas have been overlooked in the efforts to help communities become more aging-friendly mainly because of inherent obstacles in their infrastructures with focusing on supporting “individuals” instead of “communities”. This study aims to discuss the role of supportive housing and communities for older adults to stay in their comfortable setting. This research has two purposes to achieve the goal. First, it aims to investigate the true motivation of aging in place. The second purpose is to investigate the residents’ needs for community-based resources. The sample is comprised of older adults (55+) living in a rural community in Texas. In the presentation, it will be shared the results of a survey questionnaire (N=500) and housing related themes based on focus group interviews (20 participants).

 

Presenter 4:

Age Friendly Jeju: Findings from Seniors’ Own Assessment on Housing

Seoyeon Lee, Seung-Hahn Koh, Eunna Park, & Eunju Hwang

Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, South Korea has joined the WHO’s Global Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC) in July, 2017. To proceed with the GNAFCC implementation strategies, Jeju has worked with senior “monitoring” groups consisted of 30 older adults from the province. The monitoring groups have delivered variety of activities since April 2017. They have attended training sessions to assess the physical and social domains of age friendly aspects and attended monthly workshops to report their findings and observations. The frequent barriers reported from their work are related to the physical environments and in the presentation, housing related barriers such as accessibility issues and lack of affordable housing options for older adults will be discussed further.

 

Presenter 5:

Age Friendly Korea: The Showcase Approach in Kangwon Province

Samsik Lee

This presentation shares the stories of rural Korean communities using community assets to make their communities more age friendly. Many rural communities in Korea have experienced aging in place mainly because of outmigration of younger generations. This is especially true in decaying coal mining communities in Kangwon province which is located in Northwest part of South Korea. Recently Kangwon has made provincial-wide efforts to adapt the WHO’s Age Friendly Initiative and a special showcase approach as a pilot age friendly housing development around Jungsun is under consideration. In the presentation, the efforts of team of researchers conducting feasibility studies and developing assessment strategies to measure Jungsun’s community readiness will be shared. The results of data analysis collected at the household level and Jungsun city officials and community leaders will be shared too.

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