Photo: Stock Exchange/2-story Southern charm

Our prevalent housing models, designed primarily for nuclear families and people living alone, do not meet the needs of big chunks of our population. Consequently, a void exists in our culture that could be improved by a simple, though radical, shift in the way that we think about housing, the function of healthy families, and communities in general. New Community Vision’s goal is to promote discussions about housing alternatives that can improve people’s lives by meeting the needs of the way people live today. Various life stages have particular housing needs that one-size-fits-all single-family housing does not appropriately meet.

Discussing housing in a broader context and exploring alternative models could bring forth ideas that serve our communities with a variety of solutions. The nuclear family, living in single-family homes, was unheard of until the post World War II baby and housing booms. Single-family home ownership, long the American dream, offered the status of having “made it,” and privacy and kingship of your own castle. It also has the downside of isolation, loneliness, expense, and not enough back-up people to look after the children,the older folks and too few hands on deck when trouble, such as illness or the loss of a job, comes to stay a while.

New Community Vision’s goal is to bring to light more choices about housing and family-like structures so that people can consider the possibility that living in a supportive community could tangibly improve their life. Single parents could benefit from sharing an apartment with another single parent. This arrangement offers the freedom to take a class or meet friends after work, confident that the children were at home with someone everyone knew, liked, trusted, and saw every day.

The following table of housing alternatives shows a variety of models that may be more appropriate to today’s lifestyles.

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