AARP Hearing Center
Houston, Texas
IMAGES FROM THE CITY OF HOUSTON PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT (2021 GRANTEE, AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE)
Seeing the alignment between the work of the AARP Livable Communities initiative and the City of Houston’s Livable Places Action Committee, Houston's Office of Planning and Development applied for funding to increase awareness about accessory dwelling units. The AARP Community Challenge grant funded a design competition, an ADU website, several workshops, the ADU/HOU how-to design guide (pictured) and a master set of preapproved construction documents for Double-House, the grand prize-winning design by Rice University architecture students Adam Berman and Siobhan Finlay. (The home is visible in the upper-left corner of the image below and on page 5 of the guide.)
Salinas, California
IMAGES FROM THE CITY OF SALINAS (2021 GRANTEE, AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE)
The shortage of housing — and especially affordable housing — in California has resulted in both statewide legislation to encourage the creation of accessory dwelling units and the embrace of ADUs by many local governments. AARP grant funds helped the City of Salinas create bilingual materials about ADUs, host one workshop for contractors and builders as well as two consumer-oriented ADU workshops (one in person, with child care provided, and one virtually, with Spanish translation provided). The materials pictured below and the workshop videos are available on the city's website. The City of Salinas's ADU work was featured on ELGL's Podcast Outreach & Education on Building ADUs in Salinas, CA
Atlanta, Georgia
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MICROLIFE INSTITUTE (2018 GRANTEE, AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE)
The AARP Community Challenge grant enabled the MicroLife Institute to create a video documentary — called Something Small: Atlanta ADUs — about the ways accessory dwelling units can help people age in place. Funds were also used to demonstrate the viability of "micro ADUS" of 200- to 500-square-feet. (The pictures below show a "tiny home" ADU and two homes built out of cargo ship containers.) For property owners — such as one who appears in an AARP video about the institute's grant — an ADU can provide rental income from either the ADU itself or by moving into it and renting the lot's primary dwelling.
Lexington, Kentucky
IMAGES FROM THE CITY OF LEXINGTON AGING & DISABILITY SERVICES (2018 GRANTEE, AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE)
An anticipated change in the City of Lexington’s zoning laws to permit ADUs inspired the creation of a Homeowner's Guide to Accessory Dwelling Units (pictured). To build interest in ADUs and provide locally-imagined examples for the publication, the University of Kentucky School of Design hosted an ADU design competition for students and alumni. Cash prizes were given to the first, second and third place winners from each group. “The ADU manual that came out of the [AARP Community Challenge] grant — a tangible document that people can have in their hands to understand what we're talking about — was crucial to helping us convey the message we needed in order to bring about change," said Chris Woodall, manager of long-range planning for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. (Learn more by reading the AARP Livable Communities article "Advancing a Policy to Support Accessory Dwelling Units.")
Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE MOUNT WASHINGTON VALLEY HOUSING COALITION (2017 GRANTEE, AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE)
In 2017, the New Hampshire legislature legalized the construction of ADUs throughout the state. (See our article "New Hampshire Says Yes to ADUs.") To educate residents and encourage the creation of this age-friendly housing option, the Mount Washington Valley Housing Coalition created and distributed information (seen below) about ADUs. Said a coalition representative about the AARP-funded outreach: "What was most gratifying were the responses from everyone who heard the multiple benefits of ADUs, realized their own properties could qualify, saw the possibilities for elderly parents, learned that the old regulations no longer applied, and felt empowered to talk to their own planning board members to advocate for flexible and permissive interpretations of the law."
Eugene, Oregon
PHOTOGRAPH FROM SQUAREONE VILLAGES (2017 GRANTEE, AARP COMMUNITY CHALLENGE)
AARP Community Challenge grant funds helped build two ADA-compliant tiny houses at Emerald Village Eugene, a community developed by SquareOne Villages as "the first permanently affordable tiny home co-op." The 1.1 acre location features 22 tiny houses — ranging in size from 160- to 288-square-feet — each of which contains a kitchenette, bathroom, and sleeping and living areas. The community, which broke ground in 2017, was funded largely by private donations and in-kind contributions by local architects, builders and others. Future residents also helped in the work. As a result, Emerald Village was created for around $55,000 per unit, including the price of the land. The monthly cost to residents ranges from $200 to $300 and covers utilities, maintenance, operating costs and common spaces (e.g. laundry facilities, a community kitchen, storage spaces). As members of a housing cooperative, the residents own shares in the village, enabling each to receive some money if they choose to move out.
