Eco-towns for the elderly: we don't believe it!
Popular opinion: will pensioners go to live in nature?
Metrinfo online magazineMoscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin constantly generates ideas no worse than his predecessor.
One of them is to build special towns for pensioners, including elderly Muscovites. This proposal was made back in December last year at a meeting of the Council under the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Central Federal District. The idea was expressed in passing, it was not discussed for long, but it was noticed and picked up by the media.
The reaction of the experts who then commented on this speech was different. Some called it "bureaucratic nonsense": they say that bureaucrats do not know how to solve numerous Moscow problems, it is much easier for them to evict elderly people from whom there is little use and a lot of trouble outside the city limits. Other experts were milder in their assessments, singled out some sound grain in this proposal and gave examples of the creation of settlements for pensioners in Russia and abroad.
Let's be fair – Sobyanin, of course, did not say anything about the "cleansing" of the capital from pensioners. He noticed that many old people in Moscow spend half a year in dachas, and in winter they have to stay in apartments almost forever. This means that they need to create appropriate conditions in pleasant, environmentally friendly places so that they can live a full life.
What kind of settlements are these? Here, in particular, are some examples that the RIA-Novosti agency gives us.
In 2004, a town for the elderly was opened in the village of Ozinki, Saratov region. Comfortable houses have been built here, there is a social service center. In the Krasnodar Territory, in the vicinity of the Hot Key, on the outskirts of the village of Chernomorskaya, a residential complex consisting of comfortable cottages and a medical building was launched in 2005. There is a dining room, a private plot, a pond with fish. The complex is designed for 70 people. In the Sayansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the village of Aginskoye there is a residential neighborhood where 120 people live: two in each house. Each family has a plot of land. Domestic towns were built at the expense of the Pension Fund, local and federal budgets.
A well–known American project of this kind is The Villages, 40 kilometers from the city of Orlando (Florida). In 2007, the town had more than 75 thousand people. Only people over 55 years old can buy real estate here. It is safe and healthy to live in the town: there are golf courses, walking and cycling paths, fitness centers, add here a good ecology, as well as restaurants and shops. Clients with poor health are accepted by the Cottesmore settlement in Southern California, where they receive full medical care. There are very similar projects in England (Yorkshire), Germany (Meppen), New Zealand (Auckland).
There is something similar in the capital of our homeland. SUE "Mossotsgarantia", created by special order of the former mayor of the capital Yuri Luzhkov and existing for more than 15 years, works with the elderly according to the following scheme: services and full care in exchange for an apartment, that is, housing after the death of the owner becomes the property of the city. The wards of "Mossotsgarantia" choose two options – either stay in their own apartment, are practically exempt from rent and receive monetary compensation, necessary care and household assistance, or move to special houses that are located in Marino and Mitino. Such houses have nothing in common with "almshouses", they really try to provide people with a decent life - from medical care to trips to theaters. Each person or couple moves into a separate apartment, the only thing is that it is equipped so that if its occupant feels bad and presses the "alarm" button, a nurse will immediately come running to him.
There are those who want to go under the wing of the "Mossotsgarantiya" – some of the old people get tired of persistent "offers" to sell living space, someone suffers from loneliness, someone understands that he cannot take care of himself on his own, someone is very difficult financially. And do not forget that sooner or later a real estate tax will be introduced, and whether our pensioners will receive benefits from this tax is unknown. So in the future, it can be predicted that the clients of Mossotsgarantia will not be transferred. For a decade and a half, about 4 thousand contracts of lifelong maintenance with dependents (with those who stayed in their apartments) have been concluded, and more than 450 people live in social homes today.
However, as the experience of "Mossotsgarantiya" shows, no one will do anything "for free", and the price of "paradise for the elderly" can be very specific – an apartment.
Magazine metrinfo.ru I decided to ask Muscovites how they like this idea, and conducted an appropriate sociological survey.
"Have you heard about the eco–towns project for pensioners?" we asked the survey participants.
As you can see from the diagram below:
– 85.2% of respondents have not heard about it;
– heard – 14.8%.
"Do you think the idea of "eco–towns" for pensioners will take root in Russia?" we continued to ask Muscovites. It turned out that:
– 62.6% of respondents believe that it will not take root;
– 18.3% think that it will take root;
– 4.3% have a different opinion;
– 14.8% – found it difficult to answer.
People have also fulfilled our traditional request – they have commented on their answers. Let's start with a group of "opponents" of this idea – those who believe that the idea will not take root (62.6%). They are sure that their closest relatives should take care of pensioners, not the state: "pensioners have children who provide for them"; "pensioners live with their children and grandchildren"; "the older generation should live with the young."
This means that the apartment should also go to relatives: "there are relatives who claim housing"; "after privatization, there is nothing left, and young people claim the apartments of the elderly"; "it is better to give the apartment to relatives."
Also, our interlocutors doubt that pensioners will want to leave the capital and their native home: "no one will want to leave Moscow"; "they will not want to move from their homes"; "they will not want to move: friends, environment"; "the usual way of life, they will not want to leave".
As is very often the case in our surveys, some people have expressed distrust of the state: "no project is solved well"; "there is a lot of deception in the country"; "all good undertakings end badly"; "people are deceived by fraud repeatedly."
Some respondents are not sure that appropriate conditions will be created in such towns: "there is no good landscaping in these towns"; "there will be no proper care"; "there is unlikely to be the necessary infrastructure, medical support".
Finally, they noted that the proposal to create "eco-towns" is alien to the attitude of Russians: "the idea does not correspond to the mentality"; "it can only take root in 50 years."
It was also stated that the project costs a lot of money: "it will be very expensive for those who are going to build"
Now let's get acquainted with the arguments of those who believe that the idea is sound and it has a future (18.3%). People noted that this program will primarily interest people who do not have children and close relatives: "there are too many lonely pensioners"; "if pensioners have no relatives, they will agree"; "often old people are lonely and need help"; "there are a lot of lonely old people, and in towns – communication, care".
Our interlocutors also noted the following plus – it is better to live in nature: "not everyone wants to live in the city"; "it is important for health to be in nature"; "ecology is better". This group named two important conditions for the existence of such a program: if people are really provided with good conditions, and everything will be done exclusively on a voluntary basis and without deception. And there were also comments that the problem of lonely and helpless old people should be solved.
The survey participants, who have a different opinion (4.3%), said that everything is very individual and this option is suitable for someone, but not for someone.
The final conclusion: surprisingly, a good idea – to create good living conditions for elderly people, even with a small but positive experience, causes rejection among our fellow citizens and is interpreted by them as cannibalistic. Apparently, the level of distrust of the state and its social policy is too high, too often Russians had to face outright fraud on the part of the authorities. So officials have something to think about.
Data log metrinfo.ru I received it using a telephone survey conducted on a representative sample. It allows you to reflect the opinion of the population of an arbitrarily large city and maintain the ratio of gender and age of respondents depending on the population in the districts of Moscow. Residents of the city of working age participated in the survey.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru15.03.2011