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The Case for Visitable Housing

The Case for Visitable Housing. Measuring Up the North Prince George, British Columbia Eleanor Smith, Concrete Change 2009 www.concretechange.org. Outline. Current situation Visitability defined Costs Overlap/Contrast with Universal Design Progress to date

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The Case for Visitable Housing

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  1. The Case for Visitable Housing Measuring Up the North Prince George, British Columbia Eleanor Smith, Concrete Change 2009 www.concretechange.org

  2. Outline • Current situation • Visitability defined • Costs • Overlap/Contrast with Universal Design • Progress to date • Implications for planners and policy makers • Implications for builders • Implications for personal quality of life

  3. Our Current Norm for House Construction: Build homes with steps at all entrances and narrow interior doors (especially bathroom doors). Retrofit them later when a resident develops a mobility impairment.

  4. By one measure of disability, 60% of all new houses built today in the US will have, over the lifetime of the house, a resident with a “long-lasting, severe mobility impairment.” By another measure, 25% “Aging and Disability: Implications for the Housing Industry and Housing Policy in the United States” Journal of the American Planning Association, Summer 2008

  5. Visitability(Universal Basic Access) • Virtually every new house: • One zero-step entrance on an • accessible route at the back, side • or front of the home, or through the • garage. • All main floor interior passage • doors with 32 inches clear • passage space. • At least a half bathroom on the • main floor, with some maneuvering • space.

  6. Visitability Progress—Ordinances, Policiesand Individual Initiatives

  7. Cost of the features in new houses (Assuming at least half bathroom already present on the main floor of nearly all newe house plans) House built on a concrete slab: Zero step entrance: 100.00 5 wider main floor doors @2 USD 10,00 110.00 USD House built over a basement or crawl space: Zero step entrance: 500.00 5 wider main floor doors @2 USD 10,00 550.00 USD

  8. Costs of our current home construction practices • Renovations • Substandard living conditions • Falls • Isolation • Caretaker health impact/stress • Institutionalization

  9. Widen one door $700 Modify one entrance $3,500 • 84% of people over 50 prefer to • remain in their existing home • as long as possible. (AARP ‘04) • Total spending on nursing • home care in 2005 in USA: $122 billion • % paid with public dollars: 60% • (U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, 2007).

  10. Implications for Planners • Who are planners? • Current housing strategy as stated in many community plans needs rethinking • Three motivators for planners: • Fiscal wisdom/tax implications • Sustainability, • Public Health. • Strategies • Education • New Incentives • Tying Visitability requirements to granting of funds or other benefits • Voluntary programs • Broad mandates/laws/code changes

  11. Opportunities for Builders • Individual Initiatives • Marketing – the best of two worlds • 3 levels of access • --included routinely • --good add-ons • --items to sell as upgrades

  12. Visitability and Green/Sustainability • LEED • (Leadership in Energy and • Environmental Design) • LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) • LEED for Homes

  13. Implications for personal quality of life

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