We all grow a little older every day. With aging comes changes to how we live. Our households start to shrink as children move out or partners pass away. Over time, if we live long enough, everyone’s mobility becomes more limited and our bodies have needs that are harder to address.
According to Somerville’s Housing Needs Assessment, the city is home to an increasing number of people ages 55-65 and 65+. That’s a strong indication that Somerville needs a lot more accessible housing to support older residents now and in the future.
Research from MAPC indicates that many elderly homeowners in our state want to stay in their communities, and do that by staying in the same house instead of shifting to smaller, more manageable homes nearby. In Somerville, this means an elder often remains in a multi-level home that’s too large to manage. Our older housing stock can also require challenging and expensive upkeep.
New housing is just built different. For one thing, it’s often easier to maintain. New multifamily housing also needs to follow 21st-century accessibility rules that don’t apply to older buildings. That includes big things like elevators and little things like door width. In larger buildings, Somerville even requires a portion of the homes to be fully wheelchair-ready.
New housing is by definition easier to manage, get around in, and use for anyone with a mobility impairment — and that’s going to be increasingly important for most of us, if it isn’t already.
Level Entry
Somerville is also a city of stairs. Thanks to longstanding local zoning requirements, most of our home entrances are reached via exterior steps. These can become a hazard, especially during inclement weather. Making a raised front door more accessible comes at great expense, especially if an outdoor lift, ramp, or elevator is required. Dense new housing is already required to have accessible entrances, though, so building more of it makes more space for our neighbors with mobility needs.
As we age, we tend to want to stay in the community we live in. However, Somerville does not currently provide many options for elderly resident who want to live in smaller, more accessible homes in their neighborhood. To keep people in our community over the long term, we should build homes that also work for them.
This summer, City Councilors Jon Link and Will Mbah got the city to start looking at how to increase accessible housing in Somerville without burdening extra costs. This has turned into zoning proposals, one of which will have a hearing tonight. This proposal eliminates the need for new buildings to have their ground floor be lifted off the ground, which provides a cost effective accessibility solution. Somerville YIMBY emphatically supports the creation of accessible housing in Somerville and we hope you can join us to support this effort. We encourage you to email or come to the virtual meeting and speak up. Our current neighbors and our present and future selves need housing that includes accessibility from the start.