FIGURE IT OUT… The social housing sector sees older people as archetypal "good tenants"

Marion ILLE-ROUSSEL, a geographer and urban planner, is interested in how the social housing sector takes account of the population ageing by analysing the strategies of social housing organisations. She studied how they pictured the older tenants.

She conducted 144 interviews with stakeholders in the housing and ageing sectors in France, Germany and England. Textual analysis of the data shows that the stakeholders positively valued this group based on their perceptions and images of old age.

In the discourses, older adults are "good tenants" who facilitate the work of the housing managers while limiting the management risks. Older tenants are seen as good payers because of their sufficient, regular resources and their moral commitment to paying the rent. They would also keep their homes clean and tidy. They would not be responsible for neighbourhood disturbances, but rather the victims of it, and they would contribute to the stability of the neighbourhood thanks to their long-time neighbourhoord belonging. Besides, they don't want to bother the housing manager and don’t complain about their situation.

In the view of the stakeholders, deviant behaviours of older tenants are explained by 'old age'. They see older adults as vulnerable and therefore in need of protection, support and training again the "risks" involved with ageing: isolation, abuse and loss of autonomy. All stakeholders feel a moral duty to support these tenants. For social housing organisations, their vulnerability justifies their place in this affordable/social housing sector. This double categorisation as vulnerable and 'good tenants' creates a homogeneous social group of “older adults” in the view of the social housing organisations. While this homogenisation and simplification leads to the invisibility of multiple situations and identities, it is used to justify the development of new activities, practices and habitats reserved for the older tenants.

* Method: Classification by the author of the characteristics of older tenants (derived from textual analysis of the discourse of housing and ageing stakeholders) according to the notions of “good tenant” and vulnerability shaping representations.