Home ownership is one of the principal ways of redistributing income over the life cycle. Older people who have bought homes during their working years have a substantial asset which cushions the financial shock of reduced income in old age. But those who have never been able to buy can be hard pressed as housing costs continue at high levels. This article examines the financial impacts of home ownership on inter- and intra-generational equity in Australia, Britain and the United States. It begins by showing how access to home-ownership has been influenced by the opportunities available to different social classes in different periods of history. After identifying the financial situation of older owners and tenants, the discussion considers how public policies toward housing tenure further reduce age-related inequalities yet increase them within the aged. The transfer of housing resources from older to younger generations is shown to perpetuate inequalities between generations and lineages. The paper concludes by exploring the policy implications of the increasing diversity in the resources of older people, and their improved economic circumstances relative to younger generations over the decades ahead.

An overview of the experimental literature on ageing and cognition in the areas of sensation and perception, attention and performance, learning and memory, and intelligence and problem solving is provided. The review indicates definite deficits in most functions, and therefore provides a basis for understanding the origin of the stereotypes of the elderly as senile, obsolete, and useless. However, when viewed in a broad, integrated perspective, there seems to be grounds for a less pessimistic outlook than most people have. The most positive findings are some recent ones in the area of memory, which show that the elderly are able to make use of the knowledge they have accumulated over a lifetime to perform some tasks as good as or better than younger adults. Some researchers have begun to lay plans for the development of intervention programmes for the elderly, and we suggest some areas which may be profitable for further development. There are, however, some difficult motivational issues that need to be dealt with. It seems that many elderly persons claim to be functioning to their own satisfaction, from a cognitive perspective.

In the light of the shortfall in provision of sheltered housing in the UK and recent cricticisms of this form of care, this paper examines its public appeal both in terms of its popularity relative to other care arrangements and the ideas and images associated with it. Using questionnaire data about preferred and projected care arrangements, idealised solutions are compared with actual arrangements made by a group of predominantly old and disabled persons. The contrast suggests that some of the features which characterize sheltered housing as an idealised solution may be achieved in other settings. The implications for the emphasis that sheltered housing should receive in planning for the frail elderly are discussed, particularly in the light of recent international trends to encourage a policy of ‘staying put’.

Most of the research into fear of crime among the elderly has been conducted in the United States of America particularly during the past ten years. This paper begins by summarising the major findings which have emerged from this work. Attention is then turned to similar studies which have recently been undertaken in Britain. The findings from a small sample survey of elderly residents in a town in the south of England are then reported. In discussing the data obtained from eighty interviews fear of crime is considered in relation to perceptions of crime, the amount of social contact residents have with relatives, friends and neighbours and the nature and quality of the immediate residential environment.