10 friends, women living alone aged 64 to 84, have been developing a participatory housing project since 2016 to be able to live together and avoid the retirement home. Today, they are struggling to find a place to welcome them and are asking for help from the Tarn-et-Garonne department and the city of Montauban.
« In the beginning, we’re just a group of friends who don’t want to grow old alone », Begins Ginette Pondarrasse. President of the association La Maison d’Isis, she has been working since 2016 on a participatory housing project for her and her nine friends. Women between 64 and 84, living alone. Former teachers, saleswomen, executives or housekeepers, who do not want to live in a retirement home.
In 2016, they structured themselves into an association and worked on the project. ” The architects had designed a superb U-shaped building for us, with a hanging garden in the middle. Each had their own small apartment, with a common room to receive our families and a meeting room. “, explains Ginette Pondarrasse
But the landlord who was to carry out the project in Montauban decides not to make it happen, and after 7 years of research, the dream has become a little different. ” Today we would be content to have apartments close to each other, while renting a room to develop our associative activities and find ourselves “, adds the president of the association.
The concern is that we have very heterogeneous incomes, which does not allow us to access social housing, nor too high-end housing.
Ginette Pondarrasse, president of the association La Maison d’Isis
The criteria of the ten friends are established: housing adapted to the loss of autonomy, close to the city center. To find them, they ask for help from the town hall of Montauban and the department of Tarn-Et-Garonne.
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The ten friends share a lot of activities and have already set up a support system. ” We carpool, one of us leads gym classes for the others, we read aloud. And once a month, we organize a meeting with all the members of the association who support the project, to take stock », explains Ginette Pondarrasse.
The goal is simple: find a way between living alone isolated at home or ending up in a retirement home. We saw our parents grow old in these conditions and we don’t want that for us.
Ginette Pondarrasse, president of the association La Maison d’Isis
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The members of the association are inspired by what is done in certain European countries, which are more advanced than France on issues of community life for seniors, such as the countries of the North.
Ginette Pondarrasse will also be traveling to Belgium and Germany in the coming months to visit participatory habitats and perhaps find out how to make her life’s project a reality.
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