“The possible solution to helping create a happy, longer life may have been staring us in the face for one thousand years!
BAYES (Business School) – City University has just released the results of research undertaken to ascertain if people live longer in almshouses. This study, based on an original report carried out with Whitely Village in Surrey*, highlighted that women did indeed live longer in an almshouse.
The BAYES study follows two leading studies that have recently emerged, the first being The National Institute of Aging** emphasising that loneliness has the equivalent negative health impact to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and the Harvard Study of Adult Development ***(The longest study into well-being), which identifies that friendships and relationships make the difference between a healthy happy life and a restricted unhealthy life. Case made! If we could think of a form of living environment that was designed to encourage community and companionship surely this would be the way forward – the Avant Guard!
Maybe we need to look back to find the solution for the future…..
Almshouses were established from gifts or legacies over the past 1000 years and the almshouse movement is still thriving today. They are run and managed by charities and are available for those in need and often sited in beautiful historic buildings. The almshouses are designed to create communities of people living independently, but together. Each resident has their own cottage or flat but shares a courtyard or common areas with other residents where, on a sunny day, more tea and cake is consumed than at a coronation street party.
The BAYES study has identified, in many cases, people can actually live longer in this type of accommodation. It is widely thought that this small-scale charitable housing model, led by volunteer trustees, can create a warm hospitable community.
Almshouses are the ultimate in direct community action and philanthropy. The next big question is not so much “can the almshouse model make life so much better for those who live in the community?” – but “when and where are the next almshouse charities going to be formed?” The last ‘legacy almshouse’ was established in 1983 – the first in 990 AD and there are 1,700 almshouse charities gifted in between. We need more!
A housing model for local people, exempt from the Right to Buy, in perpetuity for centuries. Where are the philanthropists setting up new almshouses for young people, those leaving care and needing a home and kinship? We have refugees needing the warmth of a small community, people leaving prison with no home and a few pounds in their pocket needing an opportunity to rebuild their lives, and tenant farmers without a home in the rural community. “
To read the report, please click here