Aging in place for the Hong Kong Housing Society public rental housingelderly

Abstract

The population of Hong Kong is aging very rapidly. When the Chief Executive appealed to the community to care for our elderly and to make them feel a sense of belonging, the question immediately comes to our mind is that how well our senior citizens are housed and their needs served. After studied the literatures and research, I found most of the elderly would like to stay in their own home that is now called the idea of Aging in Place. So I take this opportunity to evaluate the performance of the Hong Kong Housing Society,

This study referred from the forms of elderly housing and policy available in five overseas countries, all of them are located at Asia. The research done in this study reveals that the elderly want to stay in their own home in their later life and also some improvements needed to be made for the aging in place successful in the Housing Society's public rental housing estates.

To enable our senior citizens to live independently with dignity in their twilight years, it is necessary to have the provision of a spectrum of services in the estate community to ensure that the elderly can continue to live in the familiar environment even when their self-care ability deteriorates. Simultaneously, efforts should also be initiated by the Housing Society to depart from its traditional design by incorporating barrier-free and elderly-friendly features into the built environment and the housing units of the rental housing estates. Recommendations on how to serve the elderly better by providing quality housing covering the physical and the social aspects are put forward.