"Transportation Accessibility": Developing transportation infrastructure and services that enable seniors to access essential amenities, healthcare services, and community activities without relying solely on private vehicles.

Good afternoon,

You have opened quite a wide ranging topic that is both global but also country, region or town specific. I would suggest that you probably need to attempt to define first what constitute a 'successful housing example' to help you define and narrow the scope of your research. For example what is considered design successful might not be affordable, etc. What might be considered a 'successful' public policy today might not remain in a decade time, not to mention that the policies are short lived for the duration of a particular parliament or government, unlike the housing that is there to stay for decades.

In a more direct response to your question:

[1] You may want to look into examples of 'themed housing' in Germany or 'communal housing for individuals or couples' in Sweden. Not all of them are LBGQT focused but may give you an opportunity to consider the advantages and challenges of attempting to create communities focused on particular groups only. In some countries approaches of this nature might not be considered favorably as they do not necessarily embrace and promote diversity.

[2] You probably need to attempt to answer a question first. Does built development should be 'age friendly' or 'universally friendly' - for all regardless of their age, gender or ability. I believe that in Ireland you have a very good government guidance documents on Universal Design.

[3] The potential issue to consider is the short term nature of the policies opposite the long term of housing issues. Equally, consideration should be given to what extent polices that usually tend to only thinker on the fringes of a problem can actually resolve the issue. Even if you have the best policies on the sizes of the accommodation if the people cannot afford to downsize, buy, rent or maintain, they can be of a fairly limited value.

[4] I am sure that it would be valuable to understand policies and approaches with perceived positive outcomes in different countries but there is also a need to consider if and to what extent they may be transferable from their local to the Irish context.

As you are based in Ireland you are probably already familiar with this, but if not you may want to familiarise with the UK based https://www.housinglin.org.uk/ network that explore various aspects of housing including Housing for Older People.

With Best Wishes

The title should be changed to "housing policies for low-income senior citizens" because probably only low-income old people need government intervention into the housing market. Old people of middle-income or above has accumulated enough wealth so that they can rely on market solutions. For example, there are many private communities for old people in California and Florida, USA. Some similar ones even begin to appear in China, too.

Dear Prof. Feng Frederic Deng,

You make a valid point, but the extent of 'low-income senior citizens' would vary from country to country.

For example, the full annual state pension in England is about GBP204 per week per person (who has worked for a minimum of 35 years), whilst the average cost of residential accommodation was GBP800 per person per week in 2022. The average property value in the country is about GBP285,000. Even if a couple sell their house, with the proceeds of the sale they could afford to pay at best for 3.5 years accommodation for two of them in a residential accommodation facility charging average fees, but excluding inflation, any care they may need or any other expenses they may have.

The average GBP800 accommodation cost per person per week would not afford for a retirement village or a community, just for a full board in a single room in a residential home with some basic support provided, but not nursing care or similar.

With Best Wishes