Housing for help
In many university cities, housing for help is the term used to describe projects in which students live in a room in the house of senior citizens , those in need of care or families and help with the household, the garden or otherwise.
origin
The first German project of this kind came into being in Darmstadt in 1992 and was honored in 1995 by the then Family Minister Claudia Nolte . The idea goes back to the fact that in many cities there is a great lack of affordable housing for students (in Germany for example in Munich or Freiburg ), but that at the same time many people in these cities are in need of help for various reasons and can easily find a room or a granny flat can provide.
Assistance
The project thrives on the cooperation of old and young people, students and families. The type of consideration is subject to individual agreements. The most common are things like gardening, household help and childcare, but also dealing with administrative procedures, driving services and support with correspondence or on the computer. In order to avoid disputes as far as possible from the outset, the conditions are precisely recorded in a contract, in particular the time required for the assistance and the amount of any rent. The rule of thumb is one hour of help per month for one square meter of living space. Usually incidental costs are paid separately.
Mediation
The on-site student unions or social institutions take on the intermediary function . As a rule, both parties first fill out an extensive application form in which they note down the wishes and requirements of the other as well as the assistance that the students offer or that the senior citizens or families need. It is important that both parties take enough time to get to know each other. Experts recommend meeting several times before signing the rental contract in order to be able to realistically assess the compatibility of your own wishes and expectations with those of the other person. There are also recruitment agencies that bring families and seniors together with students, trainees or similar people.
Possible problems
Especially at the beginning of living together, conflicts arise more often. Older participants have difficulty sharing their privacy after long periods of living alone. Students report stress from the commitments they make to seniors and families. As in any residential community , there is also potential for conflict in relation to different notions of visit frequency, noise or cleanliness. In spite of this, the shared flats in the "Wohnen für Hilfe" project often last longer than in a classic student flat share: According to a survey in the "Wohnen für Hilfe" project, the residents live together for an average of two to three years.
“Living for Help” in other countries
Similar models can be found as home sharing in the English-speaking area . In Switzerland, the social housing project ConvivaPlus.ch offers “Living for Help” to bring together affordable living spaces for trainees and domestic help for senior citizens and families. Overall, there are comparable residential projects in addition to Germany, Austria and Switzerland in New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.