How Our Homes Shape Our Social Lives

By: Danielle Hubley, Advocacy & Education Manager, Partnership for Strong Communities

On Wednesday, September 4^th, the Partnership hosted partners across Connecticut to discuss how affordable housing advocates’ work intersects with advocates for utilizing a social health lens when creating and redesigning community housing, exploring how the way we design and build communities impacts social cohesion, neighborhood trust, and sense of community. To view the event recording on the Partnership’s YouTube channel, click here.

Deb Bibbins, Founder and CEO of For All Ages, kicked off the conversation by discussing how it’s important we build housing that not only brings people together, but enables them to live, stay and age there. She related this to the growing aging population from the Baby Boomer generation, noting that by 2030, 20% of the U.S. population will be age 65 or older. In Connecticut, we’ve already reached 25% in several of our municipalities, with the expectation that this number will only continue to rise. With a growing number of households looking to age in place, making sure those homes are affordable to them, especially for those on fixed incomes, is an important consideration in the development and maintenance of housing stock in the state.

Deb continued by exploring why we should use a social health lens when creating and redesigning communities and housing, defining social health as “the dimension of our health that comes from connection and from community.” One of the things For All Ages and the Connecticut Collaborative to End Loneliness talk about often is how when we don’t have the amount of positive social connection in our lives that we feel we need, we become lonely. Deb highlighted the difference between loneliness and social isolation, with social isolation being a more objective experience, and loneliness being more subjective.

More than 60% of us identify as feeling lonely on a regular basis – loneliness has reached an epidemic level. Deb reiterated that how we design and build housing, and how we create communities impacts opportunities for connection, social cohesion, our neighborhood trust, and our sense of community.

So, what does it mean to look at housing through a social lens? On a macro level, housing should be placed to ensure proximity and accessibility to shared social connection sites already available within the community, like libraries, community centers, public parks and trails, etc. Then there are privately owned spaces in communities that should also be considered as centers for social connection – coffee shops, restaurants, and faith institutions.

Then there are structural considerations for the building of housing and rental units. Deb referenced the 4 C’s model, which considers the importance of community spaces for residents to be able to socialize, crossing spaces – places where you can “bump into” your neighbors, connection spaces – places adjacent to lounges and libraries in multi-unit houses, and courtyards – open, flexible spaces for residents to connect with each other and with nature.

Rick Brush, CEO of Wellville and Collective Health shared two case studies that showcased how communities are already exploring housing models that foster deeper connections among residents. Rick shared how he feels the creation of housing presents an opportunity to use models that facilitate more connection and to explore how we build housing, how we think about our communities, and create spaces that bring people together.

A 2017 Urban Institute Report documented that “using housing as a building block for inclusion means creating more mixed-income neighborhoods, with greater access to opportunity for low-income and vulnerable populations but it also means that we can design these communities in participatory ways using processes that invite people to the table to deliberate and reinforce social cohesion in those communities.”

Highlighting a very recent example of a project in Hartford, Connecticut called the Transforming Communities Initiative, Rick shared how organizers have just spent a year engaging residents on what they wanted to create in their community. Residents responded with a desire for more affordable housing and for the facilitation of more intergenerational connection. The initiative aims to engage residents in the process of creating the changes they wanted to see in their neighborhoods once they’ve gathered all proposed ideas and solutions. The next step of the project is for organizers to consult with developers who share the community’s vision for change, and to understand what investments would be required to accomplish their goals.

Not only does this development project seek to meet the needs of all its residents, but it seeks to be informed and led by these neighbors and residents in the process. When our community landscapes don’t facilitate social safety and cohesion, it can be hard to foster trust and care for the community from the people who live there. This project can’t just build new housing or community spaces, it must also gain community trust and buy-in in the process to truly create a positive, lasting and meaningful impact.

The main takeaway from both presenters’ insights is that to have truly strong, healthy communities, we must ensure everyone who lives there has the opportunity to thrive. We are an inherently social species, and as such, the development and design of our neighborhoods should both create and maintain spaces that foster deeper social connections, trust and human flourishing.

RESOURCES AND KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM PRESENTERS:

Following the presentation, panelists were asked to share the resources and takeaways they hoped attendees left with – this information can be found below.

Deb Bibbins, Founder & CEO, For All Ages.

“We all want to live in a safe, supportive environment where we feel a sense of belonging. Housing design, for that very reason, should take into consideration how people are able to socially connect…Our social health is the foundation of our mental and our physical health. As humans we are social beings, we are meant to be together, and when we are living in housing that enables us to have that positive social connection, we are healthier, and our neighbors are healthier.”

“More and more colleges are putting younger and older generations under one roof”, Business Insider Article: https://www.businessinsider.com/intergenerational-living-senior-citizens-college-students-2020

Case study of Garden Spot Village Community in Pennsylvania: https://www.gardenspotvillage.org/

Can micro villages make housing better for a new generation? (youtube.com)

Rick Brush, CEO, Wellville and Collective Health

“When we talk about housing we’re really talking about home: that place where we belong, where we are loved and where we matter. In this sense, the housing crisis and the loneliness crisis might be rooted in the same need and the same opportunity. There are lots of housing models that facilitate deeper connection. And we can create these models together through community-building practices that cultivate the kind of shared purpose and agency we all need to thrive.”