www.concretechange.org

Basic Home Access/ Visitability

Congress for the New Urbanism2007-2008

Eleanor Smith, Concrete Changewww.concretechange.org

Basic home access is convenient for all….

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

… welcoming to guests…

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

…and essential for many.

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

The Fair Housing Act requires access features in all new multi-family dwellings.

But most people live in single-family homes. In spite of the increase in high-rise residences,the majority of new homes are single-family detached houses and attached row houses.

Nearly all of these are built with no accessfeatures.

The current norm for new, detached single-family houses, or attached single-family row houses:

Steps at all entrances Narrow bathroom doors

Estimate: At least 98% of new houses are built with these two major barriers.

Detrimental results of the no-access status quo:

Isolation--Barriers in the homes friends andextended family cut off connections for people of all ages who develop mobility impairments

Sub StandardHousing—In seeminglyattractive homes, many residents can’t pass through their ownbathroom doors.

Exhausted Caregivers,carrying people upunnecessary entry stepsand carrying bedpans through unnecessarily narrow bathroom doors.

Costly retrofits—More expensive by ten- fold or fifty-fold than proper construction up front.

Increased Institutionalization.Exclusion of people fromcommunities.

Unfortunately, New Urbanism has beena part of the problem rather than the solution.

Direct observation and images in publications/websites indicate that New Urbanists typically design and build with no regard for sufficiently wide interior doors, nor for zero-step entrances…except in the building types where theyare forced by law, or in projects such asHope VI where the funders mandate access.

Typically, New Urbanists do not educate otherson this issue knowledgably and effectively.It is missing from the agenda as designers anddevelopers actively continue building the barriers.

Missed Opportunities:

The builder of twelve newhouses high on a hill… ... which are served by a shared alley…

,,..

…built unnecessary barriers at all three entrances.

1. Stepfromgarageto house.

2. Step from sidewalk to back patio.

3. Stepfromsidewalkto frontporch.

What will it take to address this?

Intention andAttention

within CNU leadershipand practitioners

to bring about a rapid, widespreadchange of practice.

The most essential features

• One zero-step entrance on an accessible route—at the back, side or front of the house, or through the garage

• All main floor interior passage doors with 32 inches clear passage space.

• At least a half-bathroom with basicmaneuvering space on the mainfloor.

Visit-ability? Visit-ability?

Universal Design?Inclusive Home Design?

EasyLiving Homes?

No matter what the term….Basic access as the norm in new homes

is important to the social and fiscal health of the nation.

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

Some construction facts about…

Steep lots Basements Exemptions Town Houses

When planned from the beginning of the design and construction process, a zero-step entranceworks on steep lots as well as flat lots.

All of the ten houses on the steep property above, near Atlanta, havea zero-step entrance. The five houses along the high side of the property have no steps at the front, but several at the back. Approached via a shared alley, the five houses on the low side of the property have no steps at the back, and have several steps at the front.

Front of House 1 Back of House 1

Back of House 2 Front of House 2

These photos show two homes from that development..© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

Front of 121 Glenwood Back of 121Glenwood

On a steep lot, the driveway may have to be steeper than 1:12. This does not prevent a 1:12 zero-step entrance from the driveway to the house.

Although not ideal, the very steep driveway on the in-fill houseabove leads to a fairly flat parking pad, and a sidewalk and ramp to the back door.

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

Here, the driveway on the low side forces a high climb to the porch.

Here, the driveway on the high side permits a slope nearly level with the porch.

On a lot higher on one side than the other, put the driveway on the high side.

No Yes

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

Zero step entrances are easy for houses built on concrete slabs, but they are also feasible and cost-effective for houses with basements.

This is one of several thousand Visitable homes in Bolingbrook, IL near Chicago – all with basements.

All effective Visitability mandates and voluntary practices provide exemptions from the zero-step feature for impractical site conditions.

For example, this property is steep, AND has no driveway, AND has no back alley approach.

It is not practical for a zero-stepentrance.

A word about town houses

Zero-step entrances on newtown houses with shortset-backs are feasible.

Many urban townhousesfrom earlier centuries had at-grade entries, such asthis one in New York City.

Sites where zero-step entrancesare impractical make up less than 5% of new homes.

© Concrete Change and Georgia DCA

Why not focus on the 95+ percent that ARE practical?

95%

Added privacy can beachieved with walls,gates, plants, and other creative design.

Homes above stores?Seek alternatives to the automatic practice of inaccessible, unVisitable townhouses above stores.

A deep balcony couldconnect many units, served by an elevator and staircases…Similar to the balcony above, but deeper and sub- divided between houses by shallow privacy walls.

Rather than town houses, the Visitable, livable homes above are one-story flats, eight units on each of two levels.

The developer said they sold “surprisingly well.” If the extra costs of elevators and more extensive fire codes are an issue, costs could be offset by a third level of flats, still comprising a low-rise building.

Some local ordinances from across the US have produced thousands of Visitable houses—not “special” houses but houses for general buyers on the open market.

Pima County AZ -- 15,000+ San Antonio TX –7,000+ Austin TX – 2,700+ Bolingbrook IL – 3,600+

Sample Houses—San Antonio

Sample Houses--Bolingbrook IL

Sample Houses—Atlanta GA

(Note the short ramps tying to back porches in the two houses above.)

Cost of basic access features

New houses that include the basic access features have proven to be very affordable:

Typically less than $100 additional cost for houses built on a concrete slab.

Typically $500 or less for houses built over

basements.

These low costs are not theoretical—they represent experience in over 30 thousand houses.

Costs of the no-accessstatus quo

Isolation

Costly retrofits

This expensive, ungainly ramp isn’ta result of Visitable construction. It’s a result of creating barriers when houses are first constructed.

This attractive house in good repairIs substandard housing becausethe resident can’t go down the stepsor enter her bathroom.

Substandard housing

Exhausted caregivers

Increasedinstitutionalization

More than 90 % of people over 50 say they want to remain in their current home and community.1

Cost of nursing homes per person per year: $62,000. 2

Percent of this cost borne by the public dollar: 64% 3

60 per cent of nursing home residents enterdirectly from a hospital. 4

Sources:

1 AARP, 2006

2 Genworth Financial Cost of Care Survey, March 2006

3 Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, "Medicaid and Long-Term Care," May 2004

4 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Minimum Data Sets, 2005

Visitability

“You can fight it or you canrock out to it.” Hairspray, 2007

Change within CNU—within each new built development and within the organization--will occur or notaccording to yourintentionand attention.