FINDING HOUSING IN A DIGITAL WORLD
By: Hyejin Kim, Jop Flameling, and Yihsuan Lee
The elderly – meaning people above the age of 65 – make up about 14 percent of The Hague’s population. Their population share is estimated to increase to 17 percent, which will be nearly 100,000 people by 2030. For the elderly, finding suitable housing is a struggle, because of their deteriorating health conditions, limited budget, and unfamiliarity with the digital world, which has become the main medium of house searching.
In this simulation, participants are asked to search for different types of information in their quest to find adequate housing. There is a catch however: The housing website is not as straightforward as it may seem at first glance, hiding unexpected obstacles and pitfalls. Are you as digitally literate as you think you are?
OBJECTIVE
In this simulation, participants have a chance to not only experience the difficulties the elderly have, but also grasp the multidimensionality of their housing insecurity, by going through the simulated procedure finding housing in a digital world as experienced by the elderly. The website used in the simulation is intentionally user-unfriendly, thereby simulating the struggles inexperienced individuals face on the internet.
LEARNING GOALS
Content:
- Identity the struggles the elderly have with finding housing, especially in today’s digital world.
- Identify the multidimensionality of the elderly’s housing insecurity beyond income aspects.
- Assess the accessibility of the existing social protections for the elderly.
Skills:
- Follow the instructions to conduct the simulation digitally.
- Recognize and empathize with the elderly’s struggles with house searching, especially the challenge of manoeuvring in an unfamiliar digital world.
- Critically reflect on the multidimensionality of the challenges the elderly face, being aware that low income is not the only source of challenges.
- Critically discuss the potential improvement of the issue, discussing the potential/ improvement on the existing formal and informal social protections.
A detailed package for distribution is currently under development.
– Struggle in the City Team
