02/06/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bt3LUnKcJ/
Some nursing homes struggle to get visitors. One in the Netherlands decided to invite roommates instead.
In Deventer, a retirement home called Humanitas nursing home made a quiet decision that would later be studied and praised worldwide. Instead of treating loneliness as an unavoidable part of aging, they treated it like a design problem.
For more than a decade, Humanitas has offered university students free rent inside its facility. The exchange is simple and clearly defined. Students commit around thirty hours a month to spending time with residents. That means conversations, shared meals, helping with small daily tasks, or just sitting together when the day feels long. They are not caregivers, and they are not staff. They are neighbors.
At first glance, it looks like a clever housing solution during a student rent crisis. But that’s not the real story. The deeper impact showed up in the residents. Reports from outlets like PBS NewsHour and AARP describe seniors who became more socially active, more engaged, and less isolated once young people became part of their daily environment.
Here’s the turn most people miss. Many students ended up giving more time than required. Some stayed long after graduation. Friendships formed that outlasted the program itself. What began as a contract quietly became community.
Humanitas didn’t invent anything new. It revived something old. Different generations sharing space, routines, and responsibility.
Maybe the problem wasn’t aging. Maybe it was separation.
Sometimes progress looks less like innovation and more like remembering how people used to live together.
