Communal Living for People with Disabilities—A Research-Based Teaching Project

Project Description

Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) requires that States Parties not only take appropriate measures to enable persons with disabilities to live independently, but also to live in the community. Central to this is that people with disabilities should have the equal opportunity to freely choose their place of residence and, in particular, must not be forced to live in special housing arrangements. The language of the UN CRPD has been incorporated into German social law. The Federal Participation Act distinguishes between various forms of housing, namely private housing (Section 42a of Book XII of the Social Code) from community-based housing (Section 42a of Book XII of the Social Code) and from specialized housing (Section 104(3), third sentence, of Book IX of the Social Code). Under social law, shared living arrangements are defined by the proportional cost-sharing of common areas (rent and utilities). Furthermore, shared living arrangements place a focus on integration assistance services, including specialized outpatient services, supplemented where necessary by nursing care services. In contrast, “special forms of housing” refer to the “comprehensive services” provided in the residential care sector, which combine services for daily living and housing with nursing care. 

The Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development (2014) defines communal living as residents’ decision to live communally in a shared residential setting and to organize their daily lives independently. Increasingly, independent welfare organizations are initiating communal living projects that do not conform to this ideal model of bottom-up initiatives. Communal living projects targeting people with disabilities can be placed on a continuum ranging from projects initiated and organized by the residents themselves—such as multigenerational living (Fedrowitz 2010)—to projects in the area of outpatient-supported/accompanied living, and on to residential projects in the inpatient sector. In community-based assisted living projects, in addition to community-building activities, supporting measures in the areas of social space orientation or neighborhood management are often implemented (Diekmann et al. 2016). A concept widely used in elder care within the residential sector is that of residential communities based on the model developed by the Kuratorium Deutsche Altershilfe. This concept represents an attempt to humanize and normalize living conditions in specialized housing arrangements (Winter, Gennrich & Haß 2000). 

It can be assumed that residents with disabilities do not always have the freedom to choose communal living on their own terms in all communal housing projects. Evidence of this stems from the fact that some residents with disabilities in communal living projects cite the desire for a self-determined life as their primary motivation for moving in, distinguishing this from a life dictated by others in a nursing home. Furthermore, there is a concern that independent welfare organizations are attempting, through the establishment of communal living arrangements, to circumvent the strict separation of basic living support and specialized services—which is actually required by law—and thereby consolidate these specific forms of housing (Jürgens 2014).

Against the backdrop of demographic change and expected shortages in care provision—for example, for people in need of care—great sociopolitical hopes are pinned on communal living projects. This creates a discrepancy with empirical findings, such as those regarding coexistence in communal housing projects or the neighborly assistance actually provided there (Fedrowitz 2010; Wechuli 2015, 2017). Silke van Dyk and Tine Haubner (2021) criticize, from a sociological perspective, the dismantling of the welfare state through appeals to community, which they argue exploits informal care work performed on the basis of widespread longings for community, direct social relationships, and solidarity. This development leads to the deprofessionalization of social work professions, such as the “transformation of social rights into social gifts” (ibid., p. 11), which can, for example, have a negative impact on the right of beneficiaries to express their wishes and make choices (§8 SGB IX).

Methodological Approach

In this teaching-research project, trained students from the seminar “Communal Living for People with Disabilities: Between Utopia and Ideology” conduct interviews with residents of communal living projects using a partially standardized guided interview (Helfferich 2011) as part of their coursework (Summer Semester 2025, Winter Semester 2025/26) and, supplementarily, with professionals (Summer Semester 2026). The interview transcripts will be analyzed using qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz/Rädiker 2022). The following research questions will guide the analysis:

  1. Who decides whether people with disabilities can move into communal housing projects?
  2. How do residents live together in communal housing projects?
  3. What kinds of neighborly assistance do residents in communal housing projects provide to one another?

Sources

Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development (BBSR) (ed.) (2014): New Forms of Housing. Communal Living Arrangements in Cooperatives. Bonn.

Dieckmann, Friedrich; Weweler, Linda & Wenzel, Stefanie (2016). Community-Based Supported Living for Individuals with High Support Needs. Organization and Participation in Two Innovative Housing Settings. In: Teilhabe 55(2), 62–70.

Fedrowitz, Micha (2010): Community in the City. The Model of Multigenerational Living. RaumPlanung 149, pp. 75–80

Helfferich, Claudia (2011). The Quality of Qualitative Data. A Manual for Conducting Qualitative Interviews. 4th ed. Wiesbaden: VS.

Jürgens, Andreas (2018): Separation of Professional Services and Livelihood. Online: www.reha-recht.de/fachbeitraege/beitrag/artikel/beitrag-e4-2018/ (August 17, 2026)

Kuckartz, Udo/Rädiker, Stefan (2022): Qualitative Content Analysis: Methods, Practice, and Computer Support. Basic Texts on Methods (= Basic Texts on Methods), Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Juventa.

van Dyk, Silke & Haubner, Tine (2021). Community Capitalism. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition.

Wechuli, Yvonne (2017). Neighborly Assistance: High Expectations of Multigenerational Cohousing Projects. In *Working with Older People* 21(3), 133–139.

Wechuli, Yvonne (2015). Neighborhood Assistance: High Expectations for Multigenerational Cohousing Projects Organized as Cooperatives. In *RaumPlanung*, 179(3), 20–26.

World Health Organization (2005). International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. Online: www.dimdi.de/dynamic/de/klassi/downloadcenter/icf/endfassung/ (April 29, 2016)

Winter, Hans-Peter, Gennrich, Rolf & Haß, Peter (2000): Residential Communities. The 4th Generation of Nursing Home Construction. BMG Model Projects, Vol. 8. Cologne: Kuratorium Deutsche Altershilfe

Presentations and Publications

May 7, 2026 “A Familiar Daily Life for People with Disabilities in Communal Housing Projects,” Continuing to Live as Usual? Social Transformation and the Spatial Materialization of Housing, Annual Conference of the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Weimar

February 20, 2026: “Communal Living for People with Disabilities: Between Inclusion and Exclusion” (with Carla Krayer), Research—Attitude—Activism? Inclusion Research Between Educational Utopia and System Conformity. 39th Annual Conference on Inclusion Research, University of Bremen

Chair

Dr. Yvonne Wechuli

Student Assistants

Carla Krayer, Eliott Hebel, Mareike Breiding, Marija Gross