rable, resilient structures for the young and the old that are beneficial to the environment.
Environmentally preferred materials and other information on being a green builder can be found on EPA’s green homes website at http://www.epa.gov/greenhomes/overview.htm
Public Policy and Climate Change Resilience
A National Resources Defense Council released a report this May entitled, “Who Pays for Climate Change? U.S. Taxpayers Outspend Private Insurers Three-to-One to Cover Disruption Costs.” According to the report, “When federal spending on last year’s droughts, storms, floods, and forest fires are added up, the U.S. Climate Disruption Budget was nearly $100 billion, equivalent to 16% of total non-defense discretionary spending in the federal budget—larger than any official spending category.”  The report also highlights the shift from private insurers to taxpayers, which began when insurance companies incurred a $72-billion bill after Hurricane Katrina, and it has continued to increase.
Public Policy and Visitability
Since 1999, 14 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted some form of public policy mandating or encouraging visitability, basic home access, and basic home design or universal access—often taking the form of a voluntary tax credit or mandatory requirement if public funds are used for constructing housing or rental units. Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Virginia introduced bills this year that are pending in respective legislatures.
Pima County, Arizona, embraced visitability early on as part of an Inclusive Home Design Ordinance in 2002. St. Louis County, Missouri adopted an ordinance the following year. At the municipal level, a number of communities have adopted ordinances that tied public funds to visitability requirements, including San Antonio, Texas and Naperville, Ilinois.
In June 2005, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution entitled Visitability Opportunities for People with Disabilities. At that time, a number of municipalities and three states had adopted visitability standards in their building codes, including Chicago, Naperville, Bolingbrook, and Urbana in Illinois, Atlanta, Georgia, and Pima County, Arizona and states Vermont, Texas, and Kansas.
Universal design and visitability have sustainable properties whose time has come. It is imperative for us to plan and adapt to the future population’s demographic diversity and the expected increase in intensity and frequency of storms, floods, droughts, and heat waves that accompany climate change. Retirees with diverse backgrounds could contribute to a check list for building for all ages. Retired architects may also provide thoughtful insight into building for the long run instead of planning for retrofitting when the original design no longer benefits the user and becomes a barrier. We have much to draw from with our growing resource of retirees and senior entrepreneurs, with their experience, ingenuity, and wisdom. Sustainable design can be the fabric and environment for our future lives if we listen to the people and world around us.
“I never design a building before I’ve seen the site and met the people who will be using it.” Frank Lloyd Wright
Kathy Sykes serves at the U.S. EPA as Senior Advisor for Aging and Sustainability and a fellow with the Gerontological Society of America. Previously she held senior positions with the U.S. Special Committee on Aging, Congressman Obey, and NIOSH. She received a master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1. http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/udi/center-for-universal-design/history-of-universal-design retrieved on May 14, 2013.
2. Smith, Stanley K., Rayer, Stefan and Smith, Eleanor A. (2008) ‘Aging and Disability: Implications for the Housing Industry and Housing Policy in the United States’, Journal of the American Planning Association, 74:3, 289 — 306
3. http://concretechange.org/ retrieved on May 14, 2013.
7. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dlashof/post.html retrieved on May 20, 2013
8. Local and State Legislation: Visitab