Between retirement homes and senior residences where everyone lives at home, a new form of housing has been developing in France for several years: senior shared accommodation. On the same model as shared accommodation as we usually know it, – especially students (less parties and dirty dishes in the sink…) – senior shared accommodation offers its residents each their own apartment, but with communal meals and shared spaces to break the loneliness that many elderly people suffer from, without a partner or far from their family.
Maison Mélina in Saint-Chamond. Photo Blandine Baudier
An experience from Maisons Marguerite
Thierry Sabot knows the subject well since he was one of the partners, since its creation in 2015, of Maisons Marguerite, this concept of senior shared accommodation born in Tence in Haute-Loire and supported by Jacqueline and Mathieu Decultis (27 houses now in France, organized in concessions). In 2022, he chose to withdraw from Maison Marguerite to create his own business: Maison Mélina, in Saint-Genest-Lerpt.
With a slightly different model: the idea here is rather to support senior colocation project leaders, but without leading to a concession or franchise. Maison Mélina is paid for its services, à la carte: feasibility study, development sketches, work estimates, business plan, work management (with another Thierry Sabot company: Activ Travaux), possibly provision of a stewardship service etc. And when the work is finished, the client names his house as he wishes, without owing Maison Mélina anything else.
“We can offer a fairly wide range of senior shared accommodation models ranging from inclusive housing to solidarity projects, sharing more traditional accommodation or 100% tailor-made. We adapt to each request but the objective, at the end of the road, is always the same: to offer a secure and friendly living environment to seniors by alleviating their daily constraints and allowing them to interact every day with their peers, while while preserving their autonomy and independence. They are at home, leave and come back whenever they want,” explains Thierry Sabot.
Four Mélina houses in the Loire and Haute-Loire
The entrepreneur explains that he supported, with his Maison Melina hat, the creation of a senior shared accommodation in Chateauroux (opened in September) and is currently holding discussions for new shared rentals in Montrond-les-Bains and Savigneux (with private investors). and in Luriecq (with the town hall). “It takes a year between making contact and finalization. In general, we do not ask for financial aid, with a balanced economic model, which allows us to move faster.”
At the same time, he himself invested (alone or with other investors) in his own senior shared accommodations. He participated (in whole or in part) in the financing, set up the project, and now operates four Maison Mélina: in Saint-Didier-en-Velay (opening in 2021), in Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert (2022), in Feurs and Saint-Chamond open this year. All offer between 8 and 10 furnished rooms (20 to 30 m² with bathrooms) for a budget of 1,800 to 2,000 euros per month (taking into account a 50% tax credit). In each of them, three people take turns for stewardship.
“If other opportunities present themselves, I will perhaps invest again in my own homes, but Maison Mélina's priority is to support project leaders to help the rapid development of senior shared accommodation because I am convinced that “They represent a real housing solution for these people.”
France
