AARP: What’s Good for Older Americans Is Good for All of Us
(Source: The Centre for Better Aging/Mark Epstein.)
Most older Americans have had some experience with the suburban development pattern, and many have enjoyed it at various stages of their lives. But it yielded a lousy landscape for aging, with oversized, expensive housing, complete car dependency, and restrictive zoning that prevents it from adapting to its residents’ needs. As the largest advocacy organization for older citizens, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) puts a strong emphasis on housing and transportation, and the intertwining ways they affect our families and the places in which we live.
From AARP’s effective advocacy for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), to efforts to increase multimodal transportation, it’s an agenda that often aligns with Strong Towns core campaigns. So, we reached out to discuss AARP’s approach to the issues that affect so many Americans. Rodney Harrell, AARP Vice President of Family, Home and Community, told us about how social isolation can be a design issue, how aging in place could have prevented thousands of COVID deaths, and how AARP’s efforts to make life easier, safer, and more affordable for older adults benefit citizens of all ages. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Our Housing Needs Change as We Age
I hear from many folks who have bought a home (perhaps younger in life) that they've got a family, they wanted a quiet safe home on a cul-de-sac somewhere. And then one of them doesn't drive anymore, or a spouse dies and the income drops, or they can’t get up the stairs anymore. And all of a sudden, the dream house might become a nightmare. And that's what we want to try to avoid. So you can help give people more options, perhaps in that neighborhood, so they could move to a house that's better for them. You might want to help them improve their house so that they can stay there safely. And you might want to improve their transportation options so they can get around and be connected to things. And I’d hope that they would have more options in the beginning, so that that family or person might be able to choose the housing option that doesn't force them to compromise when things change.
Aging in Place Is Hugely Popular
In AARP surveys, 78% of people 50 and older want to stay in their home or community for as long as possible. By the time they reach 65 and older, that number rises to 86%. In addition, a very small percentage of homes have the features that people need as they’re aging, as low as 1% to 5%, depending on the source. And so what that means is that the vast majority of homes cause people to make a compromise to stay there.
I always quote those stats to folks who have the misconception that everybody wants to leave to a retirement community or retirement destination. Some do, but many want to stay and do stay in their home. And that's for a lot of reasons. We built connections: a favorite park or library, our neighbors, our religious institutions. Your social network could be based around there. The homes themselves carry a lot of memories, as well as the connection people have. And I always think it's short sighted to only think of housing as an economic unit or an economic decision. It is, but it's so much more. It can be a place that can keep us safe and promote healthy activities and social connection. Or it can be a place that provides barriers and dangers if we're isolated, with houses that have features that don't work for us. As we age, there's a gap there. And the more we can do to close that gap, the better off people will be.
Nursing Home Deaths Are a Housing Issue
We saw the tragedy [during the COVID pandemic] in our nation's nursing rooms where over 150,000 people died (180,000 if you include the workers). Each one of those families is a case study for when there's no housing option that could meet their needs. It’s the worst-case scenario, that the lack of housing options is the number-one thing that prevents people from leaving a nursing home who otherwise could. It can even be a life-or-death matter. And so many people have said, “I wish I had a place where my grandmother or mother or father could have stayed at our home.” And that's driven the interest in accessory dwelling units and other options from a consumer standpoint. And meanwhile, policymakers, whether they're looking at that or they're looking at affordability in their town or other issues, they've been looking at it more and more to address the long-term demographic changes along with long-term affordability. And the more recent experiences with isolation and COVID really sparked a lot of interest in making sure that we've got enough housing options as we age.
ADUs and Missing Middle Housing
I call ADUs the Swiss Army knife of housing policies, because they can address affordability and provide more options, especially in those locations that are higher livability areas—the places that are near things that people want to be near and are already built out. So, accessory dwelling units have been big. We have developed an accessory dwelling unit model act, along with articles and videos and workshops and many other things, because we see the possibility that accessory dwelling units can bring.
AARP has another model act for missing middle housing. If you only have single-family housing, you don't have options, so what about duplexes or triplexes, or other options that might provide more choice for all the benefits we've talked about? And together, those policies that bring more options to new and existing communities are very important.
Universal Design
Whether it's called universal design or lifestyle housing, it’s the idea of making it easier and more common to have some of the features that people need, such as zero-step entrances, wider doorways, and bathrooms that are accessible. And not being short-sighted and just looking at our needs for today, but how our needs might change as we age, or as our families age, or visitors come to our homes. I have a 1951 photo of AARP founder Percy Andrus showing President Eisenhower a model of what was called a Freedom House, which has a lot of what we'd call universal design features today. So it's been a long journey for AARP in the country on these issues. But I think more and more people, industry leaders, and policymakers are understanding that we need to make sure that we're preparing for people of all ages.
Infrastructure Is an Important Part of the Equation
The first thing is just having good principles of urban planning, being thoughtful about making sure that a neighborhood can be navigated by people in the community, whether they're in a car, walking, using public transportation, bicycles, etc. And there's one other piece that I want to make sure to mention, and that's safety. Safety from hazards, like a dangerous rusted staircase at a transit station, or broken sidewalks. But also good lighting and the other things that keep people feeling safe as they're navigating their community.The bottom line is that a really livable community has both the housing options that people need, regardless of their income or physical ability, it has the transportation options that people can use to get around, and it’s got supportive community features and services.
The High Costs of Social Isolation
Social isolation is a longstanding challenge, but I think COVID gave a lot of people a face to it. And that can be a silver lining of the pandemic: a greater understanding of what isolation is and its downsides. And so as we're trying to fight that, looking for ways to build social engagement and social connection are important. There are some things that we can do with home design that allow people to interact and be part of their communities better, including windows, porches, and even gardens. Plus places to shop and interact, which serve other purposes beyond economic ones.
One of our other teams did a study a few years ago showing that social isolation increased health care costs to the Medicare program by over $6 billion. And so a big piece of that is people not having the network they need.
How Zoning Hurts Livability
There are no silver bullets to the housing question, so we really need to take a broad-based approach to address the lack of diversity in our housing types. In AARP’s Livability Index, we looked at neighborhoods that don't have affordable housing, and the vast majority of those have single-family zoning. So for example, if you only have single-family housing, what happens if somebody needs a caregiver? They could if there were an accessory dwelling unit nearby. And that's not to mention the fact that there are many people that just might not be able to find an option at all in the community that they want to be in. There may be a community that has transportation networks, and parks and grocery stores and other things that you might want to be nearby, but if you can't afford to get in that community at all, it might as well not even exist.
Enough With the Generational Clash!
I’m always frustrated when people position these issues as Baby Boomers versus Millennials, or an antagonistic kind of a thing. It's really that we need to build better communities that have the assets that everybody wants at any age. So the big problem is that since WWII, we started building for the car first and the person second, and what I see in this is a refocusing on the needs of the individual. And when you keep various ages, incomes, and levels of physical ability in mind, whether you're a planner or anyone else, you're going to make better outcomes for all.
Ben Abramson is a Staff Writer at Strong Towns. In his career as a travel journalist with The Washington Post and USA TODAY, Ben has visited many destinations that show how Americans were once world-class at building appealing, prosperous places at a human scale. He has also seen the worst of the suburban development pattern, and joined Strong Towns because of its unique way of framing the problems we can all see and intuit, and focusing on local, achievable solutions. A native of Washington, DC, Ben lives in Venice, Florida; summers in Atlantic Canada; and loves hiking, biking, kayaking, and beachcombing.