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Andželika Rusteikienė, Geri Norai LT, Vilnius University
Dignity Home SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CASE STUDY
Societal need for this social enterprise Lithuania, as many developed countries in Europe and worldwide, is experiencing the phenomenon of an ageing population with both the number and proportion of older people growing in society.1 This transformation is affecting the country’s socio-economic environment and has considerable impact on most aspects of older society such as daily livelihood, housing, healthcare, social protection, labour market, fiscal sustainability, amongst others. For example, according to the Lithuanian Statistic Department 2020 data, the average pension in Lithuania is €398.85, and the threshold of being at risk of poverty is about €345. More than a third, 37.7 % of people 65-plus years old in Lithuania, are at risk of poverty.2 Thus, the elderly population struggles to cope with their daily needs of food, healthcare, and housing. It is an interesting fact that men have on average a higher pension than women, €422 and €353 respectively.3 The gap occurs since women earn less on average than men during their working life.
It is important to mention that many Lithuanian seniors live in their own homes,4 which means they do not have to pay rent for housing.5 But this also means that they spend most of their income, especially during the heating season (end of Autumn, Winter and beginning of Spring), on maintaining uneconomical and unsuitable housing be it a flat or a house. Besides, over 40 % of elderly people (more women than men) live alone6 because they have no family or their children live either in different places or have emigrated. Many seniors keep themselves distant, even isolated, and experience loneliness in their homes. Therefore, a new social enterprise, Dignity Home (Orūs namai), was created to take an innovative approach towards solving the issue of poverty and loneliness of mainly single elderly people in Lithuania, focused on community housing – co-living apartments.
