Due to an ageing population, local governments are facing new challenges in the field of addressing the housing needs of older people. Seniors are not a homogeneous group; three basic categories may be distinguished in terms of independence level and the resulting needs. The first category would include independent people, the second one - the elderly with limited independence, and in this case it is necessary to adapt their dwellings to the needs of people with partial disabilities, e.g. dedicated housing. The last category is comprised of people with considerable dependence for whom there is a need to create special dwellings such as sheltered housing or assisted living housing. The aim of this paper is to diagnose the housing preferences of the elderly and to explore the solutions of the selected municipalities in the field of addressing the housing needs of seniors. The issue is analyzed based on desk research and information collected within field research in the Warsaw, Poznań and Szczecin urban areas.

Abstract. City crisis has been a subject of urban debates in both Anglo-Saxon and German space. "Shrinking city" (schrumpfende Stadt) term was developed in Germany and means a persistent urban crisis which is characterized by depopulation and worsening economic conditions. Nowadays, often, the only determinant for calling a city as shrinking is a population decrease. Such understanding might be misleading. In the Author's view age structure of population is at least as important for the city economic performance and physical development as its quantitative change.

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