• For about ten years, a group of friends from Montauban have been trying to set up a participatory housing project to grow old together.

  • With the House of Isis, their association, they do not hide their goal: to avoid ending up in an Epahd.

  • Retired people could be satisfied with apartments close to each other.

They have time, energy to spare and recent news confirms their project, simple on paper: “Avoid nursing homes, if possible until the end”.

In Montauban, ten friends, single women aged 64 to 84, have been cultivating for ten years now the idea of ​​growing old together by finding, as their president Ginette Pondarrasse says, "a middle way between isolation and 'Ehpad or overpriced senior residences'.

The friends of the Maison d'Isis, all tenants, are not girlfriends of youth, not even former colleagues.

They are teachers, civil servants or retired sellers and met through a choir and a Qigong class.

Some have a driving licence, others don't, and above all they don't have the same level of income.

Just the same dream: to live in shared accommodation to “watch over each other, help each other”, be together while maintaining their autonomy, without weighing on their children or experiencing loneliness.

Impossible to “wait ten more years”

Since the creation of the association in 2016, the group has fluctuated up to welcoming 17 people including a couple.

And there has been no shortage of participatory housing projects, whether with a public landlord or private operators.

But each step forward has come up against a pitfall: income disparity most often, some future tenants not being eligible for social housing, for example, the inclusion of common rooms in the plans (and the budget) sometimes, or even a geographical location that has not been unanimously accepted by the members who insist that their place of life be in the city centre.

For the time being, the girlfriends are therefore, recognizes Ginette, “the beak in the water”.

And since the friends cannot "wait ten more years", they imagine adjustments to their ideal project.

They would now be satisfied with accommodation close to each other, with the possibility of reserving slots in a municipal hall for their joint activities, like what they already do for their conferences or reading workshops.

"But in the city center, difficult to find ten apartments close at once," said Laurence Pagès, Montauban's housing assistant, who has been following the Maison d'Isis file and its adventures since the start.

The chosen one salutes and the stubbornness of "the girls", "the solidity, the intelligence of their project" and remains convinced that the solution will eventually present itself.

“I haven't said my last word, I'm looking for possibilities,” she says.

The ten friends are also counting on the Departmental Council.

At a time when the Ehpad formula is showing its limits, they hope that the originality of their project will allow it to be unblocked.

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  • Lodging

  • Montauban

  • Toulouse

  • Old age

  • nursing home

  • Society

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