How to face ageing population challenge? A solution from welfare housing policies. The European Project Wel_Hops (Welfare Housing Policies for senior citizens.)
First results of the European project Wel_hops (Interreg 3 C funds) focused on establishing common guidelines for the new design and realization or renovation of senior citizens homes. This information is spread through the website: www.welhops.net
The steady increase in the ageing population over the last 20 years lead to a high percentage of elderly people (over 64): 16% with respect to Europe's total population. This percentage is also expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.
The magnitude of these numbers lead ERVET (Emilia-Romagna Local Dev. Agency) to study the needs of senior citizens. It emerged that the greatest concern of elderly people was to continue living in their own homes for as long as possible (even the Emilia-Romagna Region has decided to adopt this new vision by developing new housing policies for senior citizens)
Therefore Ervet, together with 5 European Partners: Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden), Municipality of Brighton and Hove (UK), FAMCP- Aragonese Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (Spain), Municipality of Gyor (Hungary) and Siauliai Devolopment Agency (Lithuania, now replaced by NPR - National Projects Development Agency) decided to conceive a project whose mission was to create a European Network of experts collecting information on requisites of building, surroundings and facilities allowing senior to live at home as long as possible, thus improving their quality of living.
The information collected on housing for senior citizens gathered from existing studies on this matter (one for all the ELDERATHOME European Project finished in 2004, see www.tts.fi) and obtained by direct research on the field (visits to housing complex for seniors in partner and other Eu countries as Finland, Holland, Germany, Denmark) will give birth to a set of specifications and a knowledge base that defines a home suitable for seniors.
The common guidelines for the design and renovation of senior citizens' homes will be available for the first time ever in a European Internet Portal in English, with sections in 5 other languages (Italian, Spanish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Swedish).
The Portal, with first project's results and outputs, (the project will last for 30 months, until September 2007) is now on-line, see www.welhops.net for further information. This Website will be constantly updated with information on project theme in order to make ready available and ready accessible knowledge on how to deal with ageing population challenge in a framework of reducing resources for welfare assistance services all around Europe. | 
