Moving elderly into sheltered housing could save €220m, says Clúid

A third of people in nursing homes could be accommodated in a revamped sheltered housing system, saving the State more than €220 million a year, according to the Clúid housing agency.

In its report, A Home for Life: The Housing and Support Needs of Clúid's Older Tenants, the agency argued that older people should be able to stay in their own homes as they age, with proper supports.

Better-designed sheltered housing, said Clúid’s head of policy Simon Brooke, would keep large numbers of people out of nursing homes, save money and improve “people’s quality of life”.

Nursing home care costs between €44,000 and €78,000-a-year for each person, while well-run sheltered housing can be offered for €22,000 per annum, he said.

“So if sheltered housing can be reconfigured to cater for some residents with higher needs – even if this increases the annual cost – it will still be far less expensive than nursing home accommodation.

Some people could be kept in sheltered housing with the help of supports that cost just €7,000 a year: “Then the State would save between €15,000 and €49,000 per year for each tenant,” he said.

The Health Information and Quality Authority believes that a third of nursing home residents – or 7,000 people – do not need to be there: “ If they were in sheltered housing, the State could save perhaps €224 million per year,” he said.

However, Mr Brooke emphasised that Clúid, or other housing agencies cannot afford to pay for changes, but he argued that the Department of Health should do so.

Minister of State for Health Kathleen Lynch said the next government ought to set up a new department to deal solely older people and the disabled, rather than splitting responsibility between different bodies.

“I’m reluctant to say this because of my experience in this Government in terms of new departments and the row that takes place when you’re trying to pull resources from other areas.

“But if we’re serious about how we manage people’s lives into the future, we really need to set up a new department of social and primary care as a separate individual department,” she said.