Cohousing and the role of intermediaries in later life transitions

Mutual support among residents in collaborative housing presents an alternative care model to family or formal social care provided in individuals’ own homes, or to specialised care facilities for older people. This is particularly the case in cohousing, where residents have a commitment to mutual support and exercise autonomy through self-governance. Cohousing can be therefore a good environment to support the ageing processes by not only encouraging mutual support among residents, but also fostering greater wellbeing and significantly lessening social isolation and loneliness. Further, it offers the potential for older people to collectively maintain greater agency in later life and manage age-related health decline. Despite a growing body of literature on ageing and mutual support within collaborative housing, to-date there has been little research which has explored how later life transitions are experienced, negotiated and managed among residents of collaborative housing. Drawing on longitudinal, qualitative research of different collaborative housing communities in England between 2021 and 2023, this article examines age-related challenges which residents face in cohousing, and how they respond to and manage such changing care needs individually and collectively. Analysing data from two waves of fieldwork in three cohousing communities, the article examines how the mutual support functions of the communities act as an intermediary to facilitate communication with different parties, formal and informal care provision, and decision-making in order to support residents in later life transitions. The intermediary role tends not to replace the need for formal social care or the involvement of family, but provides a supportive buffer between the individual, family, and formal services. Despite the lack of built-in care services placing a potentially heavier burden on residents, the ‘intentional’ commitment to mutual support in cohousing contributes significantly to extending agency in later life.