Senior housing that seniors really like

Its function may change over the decades. A rent that provides income for young homeowners could later become a haven for returning young adults and then a way for older homeowners to meet housing costs and stay in their neighborhood.

In an aging nation, an ADU is particularly useful for people aged 60 and older who don’t want to move and need caregivers nearby, either family members or employed helpers. Mr. Silva died at home of pulmonary fibrosis and in his final weeks and months his daughter and son-in-law had to walk a few meters to care for him.

“They came and did what needed to be done,” Ms. da Silva said. With such closeness, “everyone has to be respectful,” she conceded. “But for us it was wonderful.”

As affordable housing becomes scarce for both young and old, ADUs offer several benefits. “They create housing that doesn’t change the look or feel of a community,” said Zoe Baldwin, director of the New Jersey Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit group in the Northeast.

“It’s a way to add capacity within the existing footprint,” she said, a strategy that planners sometimes refer to as “soft density.” ADUs do not require large government investments in infrastructure and reduce energy consumption and costs.

Accordingly, they are becoming increasingly popular. Ten states and the District of Columbia, as well as many municipalities, have passed or revised legislation to encourage construction of ADUs and reduce obstacles such as zoning, parking restrictions, and onerous permitting processes.

In California, which has passed a series of laws allowing the use of ADUs, the number of permits increased from about 1,200 in 2016, the year before the first law went into effect, to nearly 20,000 in 2021, the state reported.