AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

RESOURCES

8 80 Cities https://www.880cities.org

AARP Livability Index https://livabilityindex.aarp.org

AARP Future of Housing https://futureofhousing.aarp.org

American Planning Association https://www.planning.org/resources/equity

Wheel Pad https://www.wheelpad.com

Jeff Speck https://www.jeffspeck.com

New York Academy of Medicine/Age Friendly NYC http://imagenyc.nyam.org

Project for Public Spaces https://www.pps.org

LCM Architects https://www.lcmarchitects.com

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Steven Montgomery is an Accessibility Specialist at Chicago-based LCM Architects, noted while longevity puts pressure on assisted living and skilled care (because people entering these care settings are doing so at a much later age) it seems to suggest that it may provide new opportunities for independent senior housing.”

“As for the built environment, universal design is the best option to facilitate aging in place,” Montgomery said.

“Because it is intentional by design to permit the widest range of users, including accommodation of future functional impairments, often associated with the aging process.”

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Steven Montgomery is an Accessibility Specialist at Chicago-based LCM Architects, an ADA/accessibility and universal design consulting firm.

He said while there still is a market for active lifestyle retirement communities, the aging Baby Boomer population is “markedly more independent and increasingly more urban than the generation that preceded them.”

“The trend of delayed entry into senior settings is likely to continue as those in retirement hope to extend their independence even longer,” he said.

 

 

 

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

“One of the key risk factors for health – both psychological and physical -- is social isolation,” said Meg Walker, a Placemaking Consultant and Community Strategist and Professor at Pratt Institute.

Getting out is so important for seniors.

They need to be near a park, a grocery, a library, a place to meet other people.

We need to make more areas walkable, parks more inviting, universal design applied to all civic space – we need to make places for people.”

Walker sees a trend across the nation of people selling big houses in the suburbs and into cities, downtowns and missed use developments alive with amenities and activity.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Meg Walker is a Placemaking Consultant and Community Strategist and Professor at Pratt Institute.

She shared her insights when she was Senior Vice President of the New York-based planning non-profit Project for Public Spaces,

Walker has dedicated much of her career – as a planner, educator and elected official – to making streets and public spaces more walkable for human beings.

She said once the temporary need for social distancing has passed, planning for inclusive communities will be a key to supporting an aging population.

 

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Lindsay Goldman is the Chief Executive Officer at Grantmakers In Aging (GIA), said data is very important for cities to track needs. NYAM has created Age-Friendly NYC, an interactive online map that tracks aging in New York.

It is a tool for planning, public works, transit and other officials to best spend on resources for walkability, transit and other amenities that better serve concentrations of aging populations and people with disabilities.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Architect Julie Lineberger President of the Wilmington, VT-based Wheel Pad firm, is developing a stand-alone unit with a kitchen that would be about 300 square feet.

“Aside from family members bringing their loved ones into their own home with a Wheel Pad, there are additional uses,’’ she said.

“A couple who want to age in place in their own home is using Wheel Pad for a live-in aide (quarters).

Another is Wheel Pad as an ADU, renting it for additional income (that can cover the cost of adaptations to the main house, or personal care aides),” she said.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Wheel Pad is a 200 square foot accessible bedroom and bathroom that can be attached to an existing home.

 The $75,000 portable unit provides temporary accessible housing for people with mobility issues, allowing friends or family in the main house to provide support to its tenant.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

David Morley, Research Program and QA Manager at the APA, said while not all areas are making it easy for ADUs, there seems to be a ground swell of “yes in my backyard for these, as opposed to the NIMBY.”

 

Morley said an increase in popularity has motivated firms to create pre-fab ADUs, including some made specifically with universal design to meet the needs of seniors and people with disabilities.

 

 

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

AARP is collaborating with the American Planning Association (APA) on housing solutions, such as ADUs attached to existing homes, created out of garages or as stand-alone structures on a single-family lot.

David Morley, Research Program and QA Manager at the APA, said there has been great growth in ADU approvals, construction and occupancy in Portland, Seattle and cities in California and on the East Coast.

 

In 2018, the APA surveyed planning directors and about 40 percent responded that they have adopted more permissive ADU regulations in recent years.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

I see them as one best strategies we have for transforming communities to meet our needs,” Rodney Harrell, Vice President, Family, Home and Community Harrell at AARP, said of ADUs.

 

“There is a lot of talk about the future: universal design in housing, changes in transportation – but ADUs can solve problems now.

 

The state of California lowered the restrictions that communities were using (to largely prevent) ADUs and now there is a building boom of them in Los Angeles and other communities.

 

The housing crisis is so bad, it’s a move they needed to make.”

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

“As individuals we need to think of what cities we make,” said Rodney Harrell, Vice President, Family, Home and Community at AARP. 

He notes that AARP has an online, interactive Livability Index that helps people make better informed decisions. 

The AARP survey found adults age 50 and older are willing to consider home sharing (32%), building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), (31%) and villages that provide services that enable aging in place (56%). AARP has created model legislation and done other advocacy for ADUs.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

AARP strongly advocates for planning and zoning policy that creates more communities that are accessible to people of all ages, abilities and incomes.

 

Rodney Harrell, Vice President, Family, Home and Community at AARP, said in the more than dozen years he has been with AARP, he has seen a trend toward creating housing and urban design options that serve people of all populations and all abilities.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

“People don’t take into account their future needs,” said Rodney Harrell, Vice President, Family, Home and Community at AARP.

“When home shopping in our 30s, 40s, 50s --   we end up in neighborhoods that are remote,” he said.

Places for worship, places to meet, places for all essential services can only be reached by car.

Children leave, a spouse passes on, income reduces, they are no longer able to drive and they are in isolation.

It didn’t seem to be important to be within walking distance of that grocery store or pharmacy when they bought, but now it is very important.”

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

A 2018 AARP survey that found 76% of Americans age 50 and older prefer to remain in their current residence as long as possible, just 46% feel they will be able to stay in their same home.

The reason for the gap is one of two things – a home too isolated from daily needs, or inadequate to serve their needs.

About one-third surveyed expect their homes to need major modifications to accommodate aging needs.

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of the Toronto-based planning non-profit 8 80 Cities, said the “war on benches” an ill-advised 20+ year trend of removing benches in cities as presumed deterrent to homeless people is “insane”

“Elderly people will not walk if there are no benches. 

They might not even use it, but they want to know it is there if they need it,” he said.

“You put in benches, shade and soon you have sidewalk cafes, people selling flowers, coffee shops, places to meet.”

 

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

“They design streets to let cars make faster turns, but they don’t built an island in the middle of a crosswalk to let people cross safely,” said Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of the Toronto-based planning non-profit 8 80 Cities.

“The engineers say `the elected officials won’t let us build an island because the drivers will be angry.’

I say ‘the children of those drivers are getting killed in the streets.’”

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

“Cities put posts and obstructions in the middle of the sidewalk,” said Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of the Toronto-based planning non-profit 8 80 Cities.

“I say `You wouldn’t think of putting a post in the middle of the car lane, why would you think it is good to do that in the middle of the sidewalk,”

noting the obvious message is speeding cars are more important than the safety of children, people with disabilities and seniors on the sidewalk.

 

 

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of the Toronto-based planning non-profit 8 80 Cities, said building a great network of wide, well-maintained sidewalks is one of the best things a mayor or city manager can do for a community’s sustainability.

“I have walked on streets where the sidewalk kept sloping for driveways and I thought `this is terrible for wheelchair users, this could cause a person to fall down and get injured.’

I told this to the city official, who said it meets the standards.

I said ‘maybe the standards are dumb.”

AS DEMAND TO AGE IN PLACE SOARS, SENIOR CITIZENS ARE SEEKING MORE WALKABILITY AND DIVERSE HOUSING TYPES

A TREND THAT ALSO SERVES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES OF ALL AGES

Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of the Toronto-based planning non-profit 8 80 Cities, said senior citizens benefit from not being isolated, but the community benefits as well.

He pointed to the huge amount of retired doctors and nurses who responded by volunteering to help overtaxed hospital staff responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are studies that show that when (senior citizens) lose their driving privileges, it is as traumatic as a cancer diagnosis.

Because in so many cities, the car is the only way to be mobile and make a doctor’s appointment or grocery run,” he said.

“In walkable cities with transit, losing a car doesn’t mean losing your friends, your stores, your places you’ve gone all your life.”