Precariously placed: Home, housing and wellbeing for older renters

Abstract

Older renters may encounter a wide range of challenges and constraints in their experiences of ageing, housing and community life that influence their wellbeing. We employ a two-part conceptualisation of precarity and resilience to investigate how housing-related precarities may impact upon experiences of ageing and home during later life. We draw on narratives collected through in-depth interviews with 13 older renters living in a particularly high-pressure housing market within the greater Auckland area. We ground our analysis in ideas of precarity and resilience evident in participants' experiences of being 'at home' at the scale of both the dwelling and wider community. Results show that experiences of renting and ageing can be complicated and compromised in diverse ways by interrelated aspects of precarity and resilience related to housing, community, health, financial and personal circumstances. Distance or isolation from services and healthcare, tourism-related infrastructural pressures, and community changes can intensify precarious experiences of home, and can have implications for older people's wellbeing, as well as their ongoing opportunities to age well in place. In addition to these potential precarities, older renters appear to draw strength from their familiarity with, attachment to, and enjoyment of, place and community. These responses demonstrate older renters' capacity for resilience to challenge and adversity when ageing in rented places.

Keywords: Aging in place; Home; New Zealand; Precarity; Renting; Resilience.