Moving to an elderly home? ‘You have to remove the psychological thresholds’

Their four children declared them crazy. The service, the clock, the bed, an old cupboard of their son (now painted over in salmon pink) and also the actually too large oval dining table: everything moved to their new rental home. « When you enter between your own things, you will feel at home sooner. As if it is your old house, » says Trudy van Huizen. « The only thing we have bought new are these dining table chairs, » says her husband Wiebe, pointing to the chairs we are on. « Nothing further. »

Their children were looking forward to it. Wiebe: « My son always says: » When you die, I put a container in front of the door and then I immediately pluck everything in it. « 

On April 21, Trudy (71) and Wiebe (74) from their seventies-one-family house in the North Holland town of Schagen moved to a life-course-proof home in the nearby village of Schagerbrug. Their new house is one in a row of six, in the new residential area of ​​Dijkzicht. Inside it still smells like new, some items are still in boxes. The curtains will be in a month and Wiebe will saw two sidewalk stones to finish the path to the front door.

In Schagen we had Gróte windows, Gróte window sills. I miss them here

The cats tiger (who is sitting on the table and wants to be petted) and Frummel (who flees immediately when a stranger comes in) were quickly used to, but especially for Trudy the transition to the new house was much more difficult. « I wasn’t that positive, » she says. « In Schagen we had Gróte windows, Gróte window sills. I miss them here. » In the middle of the house, where Trudy likes to read a book and Wiebe his newspaper, « it is dark, » says Trudy. « I think that is a big disadvantage. And then the weather is still nice. »

And then there is the garden of about twelve square meters, consistently called « our stamp garden ». Their old garden was twenty meters deep: « I miss them pretty much. I am crazy about flowers and love gardening. We had a very large tree, a Japanese decorative cherry. We just saw them in bloom before we left. » Fortunately they still have their allotment garden of 500 square meters, in Schagen. They go there every morning. « It is very important to me, » says Wiebe. « I can also get one here, but I have my social contacts there. »

Toast

For 49 years, Trudy and Wiebe lived in their home in Schagen, about 1,800 meters away. Their four children grew up. The children are all out of the house and married. There was a hole in the fence between their garden and that of the neighbors. Wiebe: « Then the neighbor drank a gin in the evening, and I a beer. Then we toast through the hole in the fence. » The whole neighborhood was fun then, says Trudy. « Certainly in the beginning. All people of the same age, all small children. Everyone just came in together. We always had the back door open. »

Six years ago, Wiebe and Trudy started to think for the first time about moving to an elderly home. Trudy: « Wiebe became very sick and then I had something like that in a flash: » Oh dear, if something happens to him, I want to be gone here.  » When Wiebe wanted to leave it better again, but now Wiebe turned out to be enthusiastic: « Our house was not suitable for a walker. A possible stairlift would end with us for the bedroom door. Not handy. Moving to a life -course -proof home is more ideal. Then there is also a new family in our house. » He also tells that a lot of people they had contact with, in the meantime. « Then you get fewer contacts in such a neighborhood.

What also played a role, says Trudy, is that there was a lot of fungus and moisture in their home. « Housing did everything, but it kept coming back. » Their old house also had awkward thresholds. Wiebe once had to lift a friend of Trudy – badly – over the threshold to help her in the house. That was tough. Wiebe: « It is better to lift a bag of potatoes. »

For their life -course -proof home they pay 50 euros more rent per month (« We will probably save that again due to a lower energy bill »), but for that they get a house without thresholds, with wider doors through which a walker or wheelchair can go through, a spacious shower and toilet on the ground floor, an extra wide staircase and a bedroom downstairs.

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Supermarket, doctor and pharmacy

There were 150 interested parties for the six lifecycle-proof homes in the list of Trudy and Wiebe, says Wiesje van der Weide, director-director at housing association Wooncompagnie. « That is quite sturdy. And we see that in more places. If there are facilities in the area, such as a supermarket, doctor and pharmacy, the interest is even greater. »

Of the 14,500 rental properties of the Wooncompagnie, a third is suitable « to grow old, » says Van der Weide. At the same time, almost two thirds of her tenants are 55 years or older, the average age is 59 years. « The aging population already lives with us. »

Wooncompagnie wants to build 2,600 new homes within the next ten years, in three -quarters you can ‘get older’. Although that construction is still a considerable challenge. In addition to the well -known problems (nitrogen, long procedures, objections of local residents), there is even more to the elderly houses: the unpredictability of income (such as the now fallen cabinet plan to freeze the rents) and the high construction costs. Van der Weide: « They are more expensive to build. You need much more space, because everything is on the ground floor. Every centimeter extra surface costs money. »

In Schagen we had Gróte windows, Gróte window sills. I miss them here

The Court of Audit recently warned that the cabinet plan to build 290,000 elderly houses up to and including 2030 probably is not achieved. Agreements about the construction are delayed and concrete plans are too few.

Research among the own tenants of Wooncompagnie shows that the majority prefers to continue to live in their ‘old’ home. Only when they get a « fantastic tempting offer » or « if people get older and things go less easily, » they will move. Many elderly people find moving « hassle, » says Van der Weide. « Think of the chores that need to be done, such as hanging the clock again. Whether you pack your things. In part of our area we have a 55+scheme. Then you can get a contribution of 1,000 euros to organize the move yourself, or you use that money for a DIY help service. We will literally help you with your relocation. »

Changes

In addition, moving is for the elderly « a major event, » says Van der Weide. « In your living career you usually live a little bigger every time, when you get older it is the other way around. That is a » psychological turn « that you have to take. »

If you want to tempt the elderly to move, you not only have to remove practical and financial objections, but also « the psychological thresholds, » says Wilco van Dijk, professor of Economic Psychology and its applications at Leiden University. Van Dijk wrote to it a few years ago A public housing advice for the Ministry of the Interior. He says: « People are very attached to their house, their garden, their neighborhood, to the stores where they always come. They get a psychological bond with their house. They know what they have, but not what they get. And the older you get, the more difficult it is to deal with changes. »

As a policy maker, try to think more from the psyche of the elder, Van Dijk advises. Offer the chance to move within their own neighborhood. Allows local residents to register jointly for a new -build project. Make sure there is a care center nearby, with a general practitioner, a dentist, a physiotherapist. « Try to find out at an early stage what older people want and what they find important. Now it is often assumed that we know what people want. »

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Gang

When they came to see their home-in-house in Schagerbrug during the viewing day, Trudy was shocked. The weather was bad, rain, and the backyard was one big mess. “What a measly houses, I thought. It looked whole rabbig (Westfries for ragged, rough) out. Terrible. The walls were very ugly, there was no kitchen in it yet. I told Wiebe: ‘We refuse this. I don’t have to do it anymore, I am not going to live here ‘. I really didn’t like it. « 

Her children said she had to look ‘through it’. Wiebe said that too. And Trudy was persuaded.

The house is now finished, the neighborhood is not yet. There is sand everywhere. « The wind here is annoying, we were built in in Schagen, » says Trudy. « Occasionally it looks like we’re sitting on the beach. Then the sand drives through the street. » « A wasteland, » Wiebe agrees. That will take until the end of the year, he expects. You can see the tower of Schagen through the front window. « I like that, » says Trudy.

They still have to « integrate a little in the village, » says Trudy, « but that is. » There are not many places to do that: in Schagerbrug there are a snack bar, a restaurant, a village pub, says Trudy. « But they also have those games afternoons here in the village. Maybe I can do that in the fall. » She finally has peace with the move. « Now we have been able to decide for ourselves what we are doing. You never know what the future brings. »

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