Neighborly support among older adults in Dutch social housing: Who receives help?

Dutch housing associations are dealing with a growing number of aging tenants who have to live independently at home for longer. This requires a residential environment that meets the (social) needs of older adults and strengthens the ties between neighbors. The expectation is that in a socio-spatial environment that facilitates encounters between residents, people will look out for each other more. This article focuses on the question of which seniors in the social housing sector regularly receive help from their fellow residents and which seniors do not. To answer this question, we distinguish four groups of older tenants based on their perceived health and their participation in the residential community. Based on survey data from 2,707 tenants (65+) of the housing association Woonzorg Nederland, we compared these groups according to the help they received from fellow residents. The findings clearly show that residents who are socially embedded in their living environment receive neighborly assistance more often than residents who are not, regardless of their perceived health. Having regular contact with fellow residents therefore appears to be an important condition for receiving neighborly support.