Monitor Mixed Housing projects Woonin

The Housing & Welfare research group, together with the Woonin housing corporation, is developing a repeatable study to evaluate residents' experiences within Mixed Housing projects. Residents are central, but the experiences of professionals are also included. The aim is to gain more insight into the conditions under which these types of projects can flourish.

Woonin and HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht are striving for a multi-year collaboration with the aim of contributing to the improvement of existing Mixed Housing projects through research. The goal is to determine which building blocks ‘work’ and which do not, so that housing concepts can be adjusted. In the first round of 2024, we started researching the projects De Schipper (54 homes) and De Generaal (80 homes).

Mixed Housing, where ‘regular’ and supervised tenants choose to live together, is on the rise. Woonin is offering more and more housing in this form in Utrecht. The idea is that mixed housing complexes will contribute to strong, inclusive communities in the city in which worlds come together.

The housing projects are being evaluated according to the following building blocks:
1. Residents (composition, selection, allocation)
2. Design
3. Management en cooperation
4. Living community

Subsequently we will publish an open-source report, subdivided per residential complex and building block.

01 December 2023 - 01 December 2025

To get the broadest possible picture, we use various research methods: literature research, concise surveys for all residents, in-depth interviews with individual residents and a project group with professionals and members of the residents' association.

"I realize that I’d be quite socially isolated, if I wouldn’t live here [in this mixed housing project]. Because besides here I don't really have people around me. And because of this, I can just socialize, I can just get along with people. And I can also learn to work on myself. And that helps."
assisted resident of a mixed housing project

In addition to the HU researchers, fourth-year students from the Social Work programme are part of the research team. They carry out the research as part of their graduation project and develop a professional product for the practice partner.
By involving students, but also housing corporations, care providers and municipalities in the evaluation of mixed housing, we hope that the set-up and implementation of (future) housing concepts will be tackled more carefully and adequately.

This project involves collaboration with: