In France, a Retirement Co-op Ensures Seniors Are Not Treated as Commodities

[marmar]

In France, a Retirement Co-op Ensures Seniors Are Not Treated as Commodities

Saturday, 26 March 2016 00:00
By Sophie Chapelle and Translated by Leslie Thatcher, Basta! | Report


They didn't want to end up in a traditional retirement home. They wanted to remain the actors in their own lives. Seven years after their first discussions about how to age well, a group of retired people is starting to build the first co-op for the aging. Non-speculation, democracy and environmental concern are the foundations of the "Chamarel-Les Barges" project, located in a neighborhood of Vaulx-en-Velin, east of Lyon, France. The project is so inspiring that the bank has even conferred a 50-year loan to the founders, who are in their 60s.

The rendezvous was set for the 15th floor in a Vaulx-en-Velin apartment building in the suburbs of Lyon. That's the location for the headquarters of the Chamarel Association (also known as the Residents' Cooperative Housing Residence of East Lyonnais) created in 2010, prompted by the first French co-op for older people.

Patrick, Janine, Hélène, Luc and Jean finish up their meeting with a retired couple interested in their housing co-op project. The site where construction began in December 2015 is 10 minutes away on foot. The 16 accommodations and associated public spaces should be complete by mid-2017. It will be one of the first housing co-ops for retired people.

Everything began seven years earlier from a discussion between two friends about the problems of those they knew who had not made plans for their older years. "Soon, several of us got together saying that perhaps we needed to talk about it so as not to aggravate our kids," remembers Patrick, a retired elementary school teacher.

"The Elderly Become Commodities"

Around the table, everyone highlighted the lack of financing for independent living facilities and the long waiting lists for retirement homes. "All that was left were private residences for seniors that are prohibitively expensive for most people," Luc reported. "Old people become commodities and some people enrich themselves royally that way," Jean added, anxious to find a solution to eliminate the phenomenon. "All care decisions slip away from the family; one becomes helpless," Hélène said, "while we want to be the actors in our lives." Together, they initiated a reflection on how to age well. The group grew little by little around common values, in order to live their old age as well as possible, before jumping into the creation of a common living space. .........(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35369-in-france-a-retirement-co-op-ensures-seniors-are-not-treated-as-commodities

[Baobab]

1. The US way of viewing everything as a way to extract cash out of people is unsustainable

people's lives are theirs to live and society should not see people as in the way if they have a sustainable lifestyle.

Healthcare should not be seen as a profit center to be milked.