MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES
Irv Katz,
senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of
the National Human Services Assembly, shared that nearly three million children
are being raised by grandparents in this country.
But very
little housing is being built to support that. Land-use regulations sometimes
prevent it.
Katz said
cities could learn from Plaza West, a 12-story, 223-unit apartment building in
the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Fifty units are
targeted to “grandfamilies”—grandparents who are raising grandchildren where
the parent is not present. The affordable development is next to a park, where
more intergenerational interaction can take place.
“It is
designed not just with single-bedroom apartments for seniors—which is typically
what we do.
It has
multiple bedroom units for grandparents raising two, three or four children,”
said Katz, emphasizing that masterplans and zoning code must be more flexible
to allow diverse housing.
“We can
learn a lot from and should emulate immigrant communities.
They tend to
have multiple generations under one roof.
Everyone
benefits.”
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