Neighborhood cooperatives for active aging in obsolete neighborhoods. Implications for improving the rental market

Abstract

In 2050 the population over 65 will reach 2,000 million worldwide. In Spain –like the rest of the countries in the southern European area-, the aging process of the population started later but with a higher intensity than in the rest of the surrounding countries. According to the 2017 Continuous Household Survey, elderly people who live alone inhabit approximately 10% of Spanish households. Older people who have lived in a community for a long time prefer to grow old in them and not move around while their traditional and community social networks last. In addition to loneliness, aging in the place has two other great challenges: on the one hand, most older people have oversized homes that no longer fit their real housing needs, which is why they tend to sell them and acquire a smaller house near your sons or daughters; and on the other, the uncertainty of pensions puts at risk the capitalization necessary to carry out a reform, to have professional support assistance. In addition to this problem, in the large Spanish tourist cities, the lack of rents due to the effect of the new collaborative economies is consolidated. Long-term rental (intended primarily for residents) currently suffers from significant competition for short-term rental (primarily intended for visitors and tourists). The administration's response to this phenomenon is the development of a regulatory body that attempts to regulate or prohibit it. However, administrations with jurisdiction over housing are not able to offer new models that counteract this unstoppable process. As an alternative, this article shows that the model of a neighborhood cooperative for older people in a neighborhood is an economically viable model that solves the problem of loneliness by grouping cooperative members in adapted housing, freeing the rest of the homes that would become part of the offer of long-term rental housing, managed by the cooperative itself. Through an economic study of income and expenses, the economic viability of its implementation in two study neighborhoods (Sixto and Cortijo Vallejo) is analyzed, in a sector of social neighborhoods built between 1960 and 70 in Malaga (Spain), with an important level of physical and functional obsolescence. The results indicate that the neighborhood cooperative for older people reduces the loneliness problems of older people and increases the supply of rental housing. In addition to loneliness, this model responds to the economic uncertainty of pensions and special needs for habitability. In this way, older people can adapt those homes that are best located for their needs, while renting the remaining homes allows capitalization of the economic resources of older people. Compared to other models, such as co-housing or urban regeneration with a public subsidy, the neighborhood cooperative for older people fosters the social economy and aging in place. Its self-sufficiency allows its application in times of economic crisis. But, fundamentally, it offers a tool that administrations can use to increase the rental housing market, especially for those families at risk of social exclusion, since it favors rental at appraised prices. The implementation of this model could solve up to 50% of the rental needs in the study city. Finally, the article proposes future lines of research, such as the sociological analysis of the model and the need to extend the rehabilitation of housing to all cooperative members.