UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

REALTORS® understand the importance of Universal Design.

In Illinois, the Heartland REALTOR® Organization used a $15,000 housing opportunity grant from the NAR and partnered with the city of Woodstock, Ill., the Woodstock Community Unit School District 200 and Illinois REALTORS® to build a prototype model home.

It will incorporate Universal Design elements that will be used as a national model to educate communities about building with “Universal Design from the ground up.”

Upon completion, tours of the home’s features will be promoted to the public.

The prototype is being used to ignite interest in new inventory for homes that are designed to allow aging in place.

The project has drawn interest from AARP and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

More aggressive policing of blocked sidewalks and bike lanes is a simple policy change.

Calming traffic can be achieved with restriping and simple redesign. Visitability simply requires a change in code.

Paying for retrofitting housing for accessibility can be folded into standard economic development incentives that virtually all cities offer.

Transit training can be refocused to ensure drivers are serving disabled passengers safely.

Adding elevators to century-old transit systems is expensive, but there are billions in federal dollars available for this.

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

In less dense cities, the problem often is a lack of accessible/protected-from-the-elements bus stops.

And if a bus driver is not well trained in deploying lifts or in safely using tie downs for those in assistive mobility devices, the benefits of rapid transit are destroyed for the 80 million people with a disability in the United States.

Without transit, multiple generations cannot connect to exchange ideas, gather healthy food, keep fit or break the boundaries of isolation.

Simply taking away benches along streets, in an ill-intended attempt to reduce use by homeless people, can prevent an elderly person from staying healthy by walking a half dozen blocks to the library, grocery store or neighborhood shop.

People cannot age in place if their housing, sidewalks, transit, parks and civic buildings exclude them.

Children cannot safely move about the community independently if sidewalks are blocked by parked cars, bike lanes are blocked by delivery trucks and streets are too dangerous to cross because of speeding traffic.

 

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

Transit must be frequent and accessible.

Author Anna Zivarts’ research has proven that up to one-third of people do not drive.

When Driving Is Not an Option -- Steering Away from Car Dependency is the Island Press book by Zivarts.

Transit can provide mobility for people too young to drive, too old to drive, unable to drive or unable to afford a car.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of older subway stations in New York and elevated trains in Chicago do not have elevators for access.

This makes essential transit off limits not only to wheelchair users, but those who cannot walk tons of steps because of respiratory or pulmonary issues, bad joints or even young children who can’t negotiate stairs.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

When it comes to housing, less than one percent of it is move-in ready for a wheelchair user—and most of that is in multifamily buildings.

Eleanor Smith created Visitability, a concept for accessible housing and for creating a community where people with disabilities can visit their neighbors, a huge factor in creating a cohesive multigenerational neighborhood.

It simply requires a level entrance, accessible bathroom on the first floor and space to maneuver around a kitchen.
It still allows all kinds of unique details and multistory, single-family homes.

Cities that have enacted Visitability have NOT seen a decrease in housing development despite pushback from builders.

Creating accessibility in multifamily buildings can begin with an entrance not obstructed by bikes or scooters, a large elevator and a roll-in/walk-in shower instead of a tub.

Most hip hotel chains aimed at savvy young business travelers have walk-in showers instead of tubs.

This means Universal Design can equal high design, NOT dreary old hospital architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

THE ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

The late architect, planner and leader Ron Mace created Universal Design as an approach to places and products that make life easier and more inclusive to everybody.

While Mace used a wheelchair for mobility, he very intentionally did NOT call his creation disability design or wheelchair access design.

That’s because a barrier-free built environment works for everybody.

Wide sidewalks with no speed limit signs or utility poles plopped down in the center of them serve everybody of every age.

A street with curb ramps and level entrances to buildings makes life inclusive for people with mobility disabilities but it also makes life easy for those pushing strollers.

A crossing time longer than the standard 30 seconds—to make it safely past four or six lanes of traffic—saves the life of a child who hesitates or bolts away from mom as much as it provides more protection for a wheelchair user rolling to work.

Some cities are raising crosswalks, so they are level with the sidewalk on both sides of the street.

This not only makes it easier for the one in four people that have some level of disability, but it also forces speeding cars to slow down and obey a stop sign or red light.

AGING IN PLACE

UNIVERSAL ACCESS DESIGNS

I was gratified to join David Haight and Laura Streed this week to open the 2024 Florida Planning Conference in Tampa.

More than 1,000 professional planners attended the American Planning Association’s statewide event.

Our Aging in Place: Universal Access Designs presentation drew a standing room only crowd and much applause.

Florida’s population is aging.

By 2050, Florida is forecasted to grow by 5.4 million persons.

Federal studies show that one in four people will experience disability in their lifetime.

When neighborhoods are welcoming and comfortable for a wheelchair user, they function for people of all ages.

Ninety percent of retirees want to age in place, however less than one percent of all housing contains any universal design elements.

Over a million disabled people over 65 live in inaccessible homes.

We presented examples of neighborhood and housing designs that ensure people of all ages and abilities can thrive in their community.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Teryn Zmuda, NACO’s Chief Research Officer/Chief Economist, said databases can share not only statistics, but examples to benchmark. 

She mentioned a Salt Lake County public-private partnership that created housing units with priority for people who needed disability-accessible units. 

The development was connected to a county service center. 

A Hennepin County project put local residents to work rehabbing homes, then those homes were put on the market as affordable housing for families.

“Pick up the phone and call a county that solved something you are working on,” she said, noting data must always be combined with a firm knowledge of local needs and traditions as well as innovative ideas borrowed from peer county success stories.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

“American Rescue Act funds are $65.1 billion in direct funding to counties that are flexible in a way that allows county leaders across the nation to invest in housing needs assessment studies,” said Teryn Zmuda, NACO’s Chief Research Officer/Chief Economist.

“It gives leaders an opportunity to take the time to assess the complete landscape of their county. 

They can produce data that leads to housing stock, transportation, zoning, land use, ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units), gap housing and other solutions.”

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

The National Association of Counties (NACO) has produced a Housing Needs Analysis and Community Engagement and Planning tool:

https://www.naco.org/resources/featured/affordable-housing-toolkit-counties

Along with the sobering stat that more than one-third of all American households are burdened by housing costs, the tool has easy-to-follow solutions relevant nationwide. 

It has a plethora of advice on addressing affordability via planning and zoning, funding and financing, inter-jurisdictional partnerships and advocacy resources.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

MHP and its Center for housing data team have created several tools that are exportable to communities large and small across the nation that are wrestling with the housing crisis: 

·         DataTown – housing and demographic information for all 351 MA communities, including a feature that allows users to compare communities.

 

·         Transit-Oriented Explorer (TODEX) – allows users to review densities around all 261 Greater Boston transit stations, with a recommendation that 250,000 more units could be created if the overall unit average around these stations were boosted from the current six units per acre to 10 units per acre.

 

·         Residensity (coming in Aug-Sept) – An expanded version of TODEX that makes it possible for users to do analysis and draw zoning districts for every parcel of land in Massachusetts.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) has created a user-friendly resource that helps communities to analyze housing data to assess what their community needs: https://www.housingtoolbox.org/assessing-needs 

“A housing needs assessment is one of the first things we recommend because it focuses a community on understanding its housing needs and how it can use local, state and federal resources to build housing to meet those needs.

The Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s housing toolbox was created to be an A-Z clearinghouse of resources we have created to guide communities through the affordable housing development process, from understanding need to creating zoning to providing local funds to support affordable housing development efforts,” said Ruston Lodi, MHP Director of Public Affairs.

 

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

“More than 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65 every day for the next 11 years,” Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty said.  

“Now we need to mainstream this so every MLS in the country lists features of homes that are accessible, adaptable and visitable.”

Accessible is move-in ready, adaptable is a home that can be readily adapted to accommodate a person with a disability and visitable is a home where a wheelchair user can visit a neighbor through a level entrance, one accessible bathroom and adequate space to move about the first floor.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

A two-year process resulted in Form 6B – something all REALTORS in Washington State have Access to. Listing agents fill out the form and a buyer’s broker can download it. 

In the first 15 months the form went live, there were 158,000 listings in the state. 

Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty was hoping 500 REALTORS would use the form, but more than 4,000 did – a success story right out of the gate.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty, said he and Tom Minty, of John L. Scott Real Estate, soon realized that accessibility wasn’t a hindrance, it was the very definition of residential real estate sales – that “every different human being is looking for a house that fits their unique needs.” 

Because Long has outfitted his own home to his needs, he knew that a simple check box on an MLS that a residence is “accessible” would be virtually worthless.

“So we rated accessibility in terms of approach, entrance, living space, kitchen bedroom, bathroom, utilities, elevator, ramps – we broke it down so a REALTOR who doesn’t know anything about accessibility can find out the accessible aspects for a property,” he said.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

“We approached the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and they were great. They said `we don’t know ho to do this, but we’ll give you access to the back end of our data base.’,” said Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty. 

We worked with the Northwest Universal Design Council and figured out how to break down a property – how to assess each room or element for accessibility. 

We researched what makes a house easier to use: if you use a manual wheelchair, power one, are blind, deaf, have autism, development disabilities or are neurodiverse.”

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty, who “motorcycled myself into using a manual wheelchair 31 years ago,” got so interested in the power of data bases that he scaled down decades of success as a motivational speaker to become a REALTOR in his native King County. 

He gave a speech on how REALTORS can identify accessible or potentially accessible homes and that led to him being matched with Tom Minty, of John L. Scott Real Estate, -- who he didn’t know despite them living all of eight minutes from each other.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

In the Seattle area, REALTORS Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty and Tom Minty, of John L. Scott Real Estate, have teamed up to use data to address a long-underserved market segment – people with disabilities.

CDC statistics find that up to one in four people experience some level of disability.

But HUD surveys have found, less than one percent of all housing is move-in ready for wheelchair users, and virtually all of that tiny one percent is newly built multifamily housing.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Guidance for Developing a Housing Needs Assessment, published by the Washington State Department of Commerce, cites several factors causing housing affordability problems, including:

 ·       Rapid population growth, especially in the Central Puget Sound region

Rising construction costs

·        New housing construction that does not address local needs

·        Displacement, as middle- and moderate-income households cannot find adequate affordable housing near job centers

·        Short-term rentals -- Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO make it easy for homeowners to convert residential properties into commercial wealth generators.

·        Lack of living-wage jobs, meaning workforce development can be as important of a solution as lower cost housing.

     “Shelter is the most basic of human needs,” the report states.” 

When people can secure stable and affordable housing near locations of jobs and opportunity, they are able to focus on achieving other life goals, such as education, career advancement, health and wellness, or raising a family. 

Without stable and affordable housing, residents face significant and sometime insurmountable challenges to achieving these goals.”

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Brian Loughlin, Director of Planning and Urban Design at New York-based Magnusson Architecture and Planning, said data can help a city evaluate housing initiatives on the basis of affordability, accessibility and appropriateness. 

Accessibility means access to jobs and services via walking or transit. 

Appropriateness looks at the kind of housing needed. 

Often there is a gap in Missing Middle housing.

 

The Missing Middle includes: duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes, courtyard apartments, bungalow courts, townhouses, multiplexes, and live/work units.  

 

“The missing middle usually is more affordable than a single family home or high rise apartment.

People who are cost burdened can move into it. 

Once they can afford other housing, they can move on and that frees up more workforce housing,” he explained.