Housing policy is not automatically thought of as family policy- but some interesting policy developments have been arising in this area as a way to support and organize care work. Multigenerational housing (as a consequence of economic pressure, but also demographic change) is a less expensive way for families (and the state) to meet care needs both for children and the elderly (overwhelmingly elderly women) and in principle, supports the working generation by supplying grandparent care to children. This explorative paper examines the phenomenon of multigenerational housing in two countries, the US and Germany, with markedly different political approaches. In the United States, multigenerational housing has become a growing trend in response to the lasting financial crisis and home foreclosures. Census figures state that 6.6 million U.S. households in 2009 had at least three generations of family members, an increase of 30 percent in the past nine years. However, only California and Hawaii have developed state programs to support this trend. Mostly private companies in the US have been quick to pick up the demand. On the other hand, Germany has explicitly started a political debate and policy measures to support various multigenerational living situations so that children, seniors and parents who are not necessarily related but need care support outside of traditional institutions can get it. The paper analyses how those differing contexts of emergence (economical necessity vs. policy measures) bring about different kinds of multigenerational housing and care arrangements (familial vs. ‘artificial’ structures). There are two theoretical approaches in this paper. The first one is welfare regime theory and related welfare state theories that explore strategies of welfare states and their attempts to negotiate care responsibilities in post industrial pressures (and financial crises). The second is a feminist approach which examines the private/ public divide and the influence of ideas on policy development.
