New homes focus on senior-friendly features

— -- States and cities worried about where the growing number of senior citizens will live when they're older are starting to ask that all new homes be built to accommodate the elderly.

Almost 60 state and local governments have passed initiatives — some mandatory but most voluntary — asking all builders to include at least three features in new houses to help seniors and the disabled: no steps at the entrance, a bathroom on the ground floor and wider doorways.

"We know that people want to stay in their homes and want to live independently as long as they can," says Elinor Ginzler, senior vice president for livable communities at AARP. "The design of homes is a critical factor."

AARP commissioned a report being released this week on "visitability," a term widely used in Europe to describe homes accessible to people in wheelchairs, on crutches or using walkers.

A growing number of jurisdictions, including San Antonio, Tucson and Pima County, Ariz., now require basic senior-friendly features in new homes, the report found. Others, including Austin, offer builders incentives to provide them. States including Georgia and Maryland are considering similar legislation.

Advocates hope the policy eventually will become standard nationwide.

"It's a relatively young movement," says Jordana Maisel, co-author of the report and a director at the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access at the University of Buffalo. "States are realizing they need to address this for their own constituency. It's catching on because of the aging of the population, and people can't afford to have assisted care."

The oldest of 79 million Baby Boomers turn 62 this year. Many seniors are homebound because they can't negotiate stairs. Often, they're stuck in second-floor bedrooms because that's where the bathroom is.

Nancy and George Mairs were delighted to find Armory Park del Sol, a development in downtown Tucson of homes designed to provide easier access. Nancy, 65, has multiple sclerosis and is a quadriplegic. George, 67, is her caregiver. "In addition to the accessibility, it's a green house. It has solar power," Nancy says. "It has zero-step entry front and back."

In the community of about 90 houses, most are occupied by people who don't have special needs but may some day. Others have friends and relatives who like to visit and need accessible entryways.

"I can definitely invite anyone I want here," Nancy Mairs says.

What's being done across the USA:

• Bolingbrook, Ill., about 25 miles southwest of Chicago, mandates 36-inch-wide doors and hallways, a bathroom on the first floor, an entry with no steps, light switches, outlets at wheelchair level and reinforced walls in the bathroom to support a grab bar. More than 4,000 homes have been built with the new features since the law was passed in 2003.

"A lot of senior citizens become disabled," says Mayor Roger Claar. "People are living longer. … This makes sense all the way around."

• Maryland is considering incorporating accessibility standards into its building codes.

"By requiring it in building standards, then everybody has to do it," says Doyle Niemann, a Democratic state delegate from Prince George's County. "That would drive the cost down." Niemann introduced such legislation in January. It prompted the state to study the issue this summer and a bill could be reintroduced next year.

• In Austin, builders who adopt requirements dubbed S.M.A.R.T. Housing — (Safe, Mixed-income, Accessible, Reasonably-priced, Transit-oriented) — receive fee waivers, fast-track review and other benefits.

•Pima County, Ariz., was the first in 2002 to enact an ordinance that apply to all new homes. Aside from no steps and wide doorways, it asks for lever door handles, reinforced walls in bathrooms for grab bars and electrical controls that can be reached by people in a wheelchair. "It makes sense to build it right the first time," Maisel says.

Fulfilling requirements can add $200 to $1,000 to the cost of building a home but that's much cheaper than retrofitting a home or moving to an assisted-living facility, she says.

"The housing we build today is going to be with us 50 to 100 years," Niemann says. "If people can stay in their own homes, it reduces the personal and social costs."