CHALLENGE
The population of Zeeland is changing: there are more and more seniors who have specific wishes and needs. There comes a moment in lives of many elderly and people who struggle with some disability that they have to leave their own house and move to a small room in a care centre where all facilities are accessible on the premises.
The inhabitants never or hardly ever need to go out and to some extent lose contact with the outer world. Thus there appears a greater wish to let these groups of people stay longer in their own residential environment. Due to this wish and the changing composition of population there rises the need to create new concepts for housing with access to care facilities.

AIM OF THE PROJECT
It is a goal of Middelburg municipality to offer its inhabitants (around 46.000) an integral access to housing, care, well-being facilities and services at the level of districts. In this way the municipality wishes to stimulate people to stay in a housing environment that is familiar to them and remain socially active as long as possible.

DESCRIPTION
The municipality of Middelburg has opted for a network of housing and service zones: a new small-scale concept for housing with care facilities.
Middelburg has been divided into 9 housing and service zones. Each of them offers a full access to care, welfare facilities and services at the level of districts. This means that all inhabitants of Middelburg live in a housing and service zone and that they can take advantage of activities and services.
A housing and service zone is based on four blocks as far as housing and care are concerned. First of all there are housing facilities with various concepts which answer different wishes and needs of specific target groups. The housing concepts vary from group flats with 24hour care to individual flats where intensive care can be provided. A great range of housing options makes it possible to find a good solution for every specific case. Secondly, each housing and service zone has a ‘care junction’: a central point where home care gets co-ordinated and from where it is delivered. Moreover there is the project which focuses on commercial activities and which co-ordinates such services as cleaning or transport. Finally, the Foundation Well-being Middelburg (Stichting Welzijn Middelburg) takes care of well-being of the whole district as it co-ordinates activities for its inhabitants and activities organized by its inhabitants.
In total there will be around 510 individual flats with care facilities, 90 places in group flats and 400 individual flats where care can be delivered if needed.
The municipality controls the situation by running an active policy: all developments in the town are analysed by the municipal development company. Thanks to good co-operation with the building society it is possible to take a grip on the locations and to continue the work.
The municipality and the building society have established a special financial regulation in the framework of participation fund for the elderly with low income.  It is more expensive for these people to live on their own than to move to a nursing home. To give them the possibility to stay in their homes, they can ask for help of the fund, which is financially supported by Woongoed Middelburg and the municipality. This is supplemented by one-off contribution on the part of Zeeland province.
Meanwhile several housing and service zones are created, among others Parkstate and Hof Klarenbeek. Parkstate is the first care complex and it was finished in 2005. It comprises 22 flats with care facilities. They are located in three residential towers which offer enough space for ‘care junctions’, temporary intake and a shopping centre. On the other side there is an extensive school district centre.
Hof Klarenbeek consists of 56 apartments for seniors which are localised in two blocks. 24 apartments are meant for the elderly with an indication for care. The complex is the place from which 24hour care is provided and which offers common space for meetings and different activities. Application of several innovations makes the complex very economical as far as energy use is concerned. For that reason it has won the Building Business Golden Green Award in the category: sustainable housing development.

Actor / Lead Management / Cooperation
Middelburg Municipality, Zeeland Province, Woongoed Middelburg, Woonzorg Nederland and different organizations for care and well-being.