Older People in a Long-term Regeneration Neighbourhood. An Exploratory Panel Study of Ageing in Place in Hoogvliet, Rotterdam

A precondition for ‘ageing in place’ is that older people perceive their neighbourhoods as familiar and safe places. In the Netherlands, manyneighbourhoods with an ageing population have been subject to urban restructuring policies. An important question is to what extent such policies affect the housing situation, socioeconomic position and social support networks of older people, as these factors strongly assist their ability to ‘age in place’. The paper answers this question through an exploratory analysis of a small but unique panel data set from Hoogvliet, a large urban restructuring area in the city of Rotterdam. The partly counter-intuitive results show that restructuring has enabled ‘ageing in place’.