Community Resistance to Planned Housing for the Elderly: Ageism or General Antipathy to Group Housing?

Community resistance to elderly housing, as compared to other group housing, was studied through a mail survey of two suburban communities. All group housing was objectionable but the least objectionable were one-story apartments, shared housing, and multi-story apartments for the elderly, in that order. Multiple regression analysis revealed that antipathy to group housing, in general, was a far more important predictor of antipathy to housing for the elderly than ageism.