Dutch Aged Care Home Offers Rent-Free Housing to Students

An aged care home in the Netherlands allows university students to live rent-free alongside the elderly residents, as part of a project aimed at warding off the negative effects of ageing.

In exchange for small, rent-free apartments, the Humanitas retirement home in Deventer, Netherlands, requires students to spend at least 30 hours per month acting as ‘good neighbours’, Humanitas CEO Gea Sijpkes said.

Students do a variety of activities with the residents, including watching sports, celebrating birthdays and offering much-needed company when seniors fall ill, which helps to  keep away feelings of disconnectedness.

“The students bring the outside world in, there is lots of warmth in the contact,” Sijpkes said.

Six students from universities in the area share the building with approximately 160 elderly residents. They are allowed to come and go as they please, as long as they follow one rule: do not be a nuisance to the residents.

The program started two years ago after Sijpkes received an email from a student who complained about the noise and poor conditions of school housing. Sijpkes responded and they began to talk and design the exchange program.

While Sijpkes developed the program purely for her own aged care home, she said she can’t see any reason why the concept couldn’t travel beyond the Netherlands to Australia.