Ap wants to let students stay cheap at nursing homes

Labour Party Deputy Leader, Hadia Tajik ValenLabour Party Deputy Leader, Hadia Tajik. Photo: Arbeiderpartiet

Ap wants to let students stay cheap at nursing homes

Labour suggests that students stay cheap at nursing homes in return for spending time with the elderly.

 

Inspired by a project in the Netherlands, the Labor Party presents a proposal on Monday that students can move into nursing homes, reports NRK. The proposal is part of the party’s plan for care for the elderly in the next parliamentary term.

The proposal is to start a pilot project in which student housing is established in connection with nursing and care homes. The students can then rent a cheap apartment in return for, for example, participating in social activities with residents for a certain number of hours every month.

Deputy leader in Ap, Hadia Tajik, believes the scheme could become a win-win solution.

– We think there are several gains in this: The students get a reasonable place to live, both the elderly and the students can enjoy it, and in addition, it gives professionals in these places the opportunity to be professionals because of increased time and capacity, says the Deputy Leader to NRK.

Tajik emphasizes that such a scheme might help to fight loneliness for both young and old.

The Progress Party welcomes the Labour Party on board, pointing to that the party presented the same proposal in 2016.

Several students can get a roof over their heads

The chairman of the Student Parliament at the University of Bergen, Håkon Randgaard Mikalsen, believes the proposal can remedy the problem of too little student housing, but emphasizes that it is important not to use students as cheap labour.

– Today, we have too little student housing, which contributes to high rental rates and long housing queues every autumn. This proposal can help to help fewer young people have to start their studies without a roof over their heads or on a mattress in a sports hall, Mikalsen says in a press release.

On the terms of the elderly

Henrik Asheim in the Conservative Party is positive towards the proposal, but believes that it must happen on the terms of the elderly.

– If you want to make a proposal like this, then it must be verified that the students moving into elderly homes are actually able to live there. And that this does not deteriorate the quality or offer to the elderly, says Asheim to NRK.

The Trade Union (LO) believes the proposal from AP is principally positive, but is concerned that this does not affect the staffing elsewhere in the institutions. They emphasize that students must come in addition to regular employees and not instead of them.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today