Cohort Survival Analysis is Not Enough: Why Local Planners Need to Know More About the Residential Mobility of the Elderly

The residential mobility choices of the elderly (aging-in-place, local moves, or migration) have very different policy implications forming a dynamic system of inter-related issues that present planners with a number of dilemmas which are particularly sensitive to local context. These include competing models of care and service delivery, provision of appropriate housing, physically and socially supportive local environments, community development, relocation services, housing specialization and age integration, the introduction of housing options within neighbourhoods, population redistribution, economic development, social integration, and localized differences in the demand for services. Local planners need to move beyond simple estimates of future demand based expected numbers and present use patterns, to examine the possible impact of these issues on the integration of an aging population within their communities.