Building for sense of place: towards purposeful affordable housing for older adults

Metro Vancouver is experiencing an ageing population at a time of rapidly rising market rents and little increase in fixed incomes. In the City of Richmond, 19% of senior-led economic family renter households are considered hidden homeless due to their risk of ‘economic eviction’ (United Way, 2011). This situation threatens the right of older citizens to age-in-place and puts them at risk for isolation and displacement from community. Regional policy has advocated for affordable housing as a potential solution to provide secure housing for older adults (City of Richmond, 2007). The provision of affordable housing in its built form is not sufficient to create a viable environment for aging: affordable housing needs to meet the sense of place needs of seniors, articulated through access to supports for active participation, opportunities to build and sustain social networks, and assuming a meaningful role in the community. Method: This poster presentation reports on the methodology design for a participatory, community-based project funded by the Vancouver Foundation, the aims of which are to (i) understand how sense of place is experienced by older people relocating into an affordable housing development (ii) translate these experiences into supports that generate and preserve meaningful aspects of place, and (iii) better articulate the role of older people and others as active ‘placemakers’ by bringing together older adults, planners and developers, service providers and local government.