Mayo councillor wants emphasis on age friendly housing in towns and villages

A MAYO councillor has called for more age friendly housing to be developed in towns and villages to allow older people to live closer to services and free up housing for families.

Westport-based councillor Peter Flynn told the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council that a greater focus should be placed on developing age friendly housing projects due to the growing age population in Mayo.

His comments came following a presentation to the council on the Mayo Age Friendly Programme and Age Friendly Healthy Homes. The councillors were told that by 2051 the number of people aged over 65 will have increased from 650,000 to 1.6 million while the number of people aged 80 plus will have increased to 550,000.

Cllr Flynn noted that while canvassing during the local elections he came across a number of elderly people living alone in large houses in rural areas. He added that age friendly housing schemes should be prioritised to cater for these people so they can live in independence.

“Our focus right now seems to be all on social housing but the single biggest opportunity we have is to get active age developments within our town centres and villages.

“For anyone who has been going around canvassing at the moment or in the weeks running up to the local elections the number of people living in rural areas in big houses. Their kids have moved on and they are either living alone or as a couple and they are roaring out for accommodation in our towns and villages to move into so they are close to the church and shop and pub. That is what people are looking for.”

As part of the renovation of the old Convent of Mercy building in Westport, 18 age friendly apartments will be developed in the old church and sacristy.

“We need to develop more and more of those schemes,” Cllr Flynn said. “I am asking that it be prioritised as part of this age active strategy and try to get more of those developments in our towns and villages right around the county. Make it as easy as possible for people to move into the town centres,” he said.

Cllr Flynn added that a number of people have decided to retire to Mayo in recent years and pointed out the extra services available for elderly people such as active retirement groups and men's shed.

Maura Murphy, the Mayo Age Friendly Programme manager explained that the county has achieved a number of milestones in recent years to make it more age friendly. She pointed out that Ireland West Airport Knock is the first airport in the world to become an age friendly airport while every library in Mayo is an age friendly library. She added that in the future they look to make Knock village an age friendly village to ensure it is more accessible for elderly people.

The meeting also heard that it costs €78,000 a year for someone to live in a nursing home while it costs just €31,000 to live at home and

Maria Nolan, the Age Friendly Healthy Homes Regional Programme Manager explained that the emphasis of the programme is to enable older people to live at home and be part of the community.

In order to do this, she said there are coordinators in all local authorities who meet people at home and assess their needs. Following these assessments, she said that implementation measures are put in place to ensure they can continue to live at home and their process is tracked.

The work of the two women and those involved in the programmes was praised by local councillors who stated it is important that provisions are in place to support older people.