[Housing status and social networks for the elderly]

There is a provable correlation between the housing conditions of elderly persons and their being attached to a network of aid they can rely on in cases of emergency and strain. The elderly living in one or two-family houses, for example, have several options of being supported. The elderly living in big city tenements on the other hand often lack such an abundance of relations. Integration into the circle of family members and relatives plays the major role for these quantitative framework conditions as well as for the immediate availability of assistance. Having a house of one's own increases the possibility of developing a well-functioning cross-generation support system within the family. If promotion of house construction was further adapted to this operating mechanism, support effects for social policy could be reached. At the same time it is imperative to encourage the development of informal support systems within the framework of socio-political initiatives. With the number of childless elderly persons increasing, such systems would partially compensate for the lack of family assistance through neighbourhood and other forms of self-support.