China population: college graduates offered free accommodation to help tackle ageing society, but feasibility questioned

A nursing home in eastern China has taken a newfangled approach, though already seen in the likes of the Netherlands and the United States, to tackle one of the nation’s many demographic issues.

But offering college graduates free accommodation for spending time with elderly residents raises a question among academics whether it could be a feasible solution to a rapidly ageing society without government support.

Promoted as “multi-generational housing,” the programme was first piloted by the Civil Affairs Bureau of Binjiang district in Hangzhou in 2019.

Two groups of 15 companions have already passed through the programme at the publicly-funded Sunshine Home, with recruitment under way for a third batch of between 15-20, who will be offered a one-year contract.

The companionship can “meet the social and emotional needs of the elderly … and also reduce the living costs for young individuals who have just entered the workforce,” the authority said via its WeChat account.

Applicants are also required to hold an employment contract with a local company or a business licence within Binjiang district, and they should not already have housing within the urban area of Hangzhou.

Applicants who can provide stable companionship during the day on weekdays will be given priority, the WeChat post added.

They are expected to participate in various activities, share meals or go for walks and will be compensated with free accommodation for spending a minimum of 10 hours each month with residents.

“There is no age limit for recruitment, but we particularly encourage young people to join,” the Civil Affairs Bureau in Binjiang district told the Shanghai-based digital newspaper, The Paper, on Monday.

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And according to official projections, an estimated 400 million people in China will be aged over 60 by 2035, representing 30 per cent of the population.

A retirement home in Cleveland, in the US state of Ohio, already offers free rooms to music and art students at nearby institutes in exchange for regular recitals and art therapy classes for elderly residents.

But it could be challenging for a similar model to be replicated and promoted, said Yang Fan, an associate professor of social policy at the School of International and Public Affairs at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

“It can run as an innovative and localised pilot project, but it is not feasible to promote it on a larger scale,” said Yang.

“It will face significant obstacles right from the first step.”

Provincial-level local governments in China provide special subsidies for nursing home beds, meaning it would not be an option to offer accommodation to young individuals as the programme would not pass auditing requirements, Yang added.

Elderly care institutions have also become more cautious after the coronavirus pandemic due to the risk of infection, he added.

Central government support for the model, though, could help facilitate the project on a larger scale, said Cao Yanchun, a professor of public administration at the Faculty of Economics and Management at East China Normal University.

“The government could offer an official endorsement, subsidies and regulatory oversight, all of which could drive the sustainable development of this model,” she said.