PPA 419

1
PPA 419 Aging Services Administration

• Lecture 7d Rethinking zoning to accommodate the
  elderly in single family housing

2
Introduction

• Demographics of U.S. have changed and goal of
  1949 Housing Act to provide a decent home and
  suitable living arrangement for all Americans
  has not been met.
• Elderly one segment that will need affordable
  housing in increasing numbers.
• In the absence of government subsidy, attention
  has turned to existing housing stock.
• Planners and others have devised remedies to
  allow aging in place
• But, zoning laws place restrictions on their
  implementation.

3
Introduction

• Home-rule works against change.
• Zoning ordinances devised during a period with
  very different housing composition.
• Zoning ordinances no longer meet housing needs.
• Comprehensive zoning first upheld in 1926 (Euclid
  vs. Ambler) with special protection of
  single-family homes from nuisances.
• Problem Single family household has declined
  from 44.3 percent of households in 1960 to 26.3
  percent in 1990.

4
Zoning for Affordable Housing

• Zoning regulations will be upheld if
• Their goals are to serve the public health,
  safety, morals, or general welfare.
• The restrictions bear a substantial relationship
  to those goals.

5
Zoning for Affordable Housing

• Zoning protects single family dwellings by
  restricting land-use to single family dwellings.
• Occupancy restrictions limiting use to a single
  family with a restrictive definition of family.
• Regulations limiting land use to only one
  single-family dwelling per lot.
• The changing composition of both families and
  households and the need to create more
  affordable housing calls these zoning
  provisions into question.

6
Affordable Housing for the Elderly A Role for
Local Policy

• Increases in the number of elderly from 31
  million in 1990 to 66 million in 2050.
• Higher percentage paid for housing by elderly.
• Few alternatives for elderly beyond family home
  that are not too large or expensive combined with
  little market for the family home in some places.
• Housing is critical to contribution to community.

7
Local government strategies

• Shared Residences
• Zoning definition of family often too
  restrictive.
• The more restrictive the definition, the less
  likely the courts are to uphold deviations.
• So far, no wholesale trend in local communities
  to broaden definition unless legally challenged.
• Second Units (Accessory Apartments and ECHO
  cottages)
• Legal problems second dwelling unit, occupancy,
  and removal.