Some good ideas don't completely go away, they just go to the back of the room and wait until they are needed again. Throughout the country, but especially in the New England towns that grew up around the mills, the two family house, sometimes three family, was a staple of the community. The owner lived upstairs with the rental income supplementing his mortgage and other payments. The availability of an apartment provided housing at a variety of scales and price ranges. It was not uncommon for the occupants, both owner and renter to be related which reinforced the extended family. In my own family, my Irish grandparents lived downstairs from my grandmother's older sister's family who had sponsored their immigration.
Multiple dwelling houses were an efficient use of the land and became the basis of closely packed village communities. The compact nature allowed markets and churches to be handy. You would walk to school or work and be part of your community.
We've come full circle from a time when our zoning codes promoted single family houses on large lots that could only be reached by car. The two family has morphed into the accessory dwelling unit or ADU, a term that covers everything from the traditional two family, to the apartment over the garage, and even the tiny house parked in the yard. Great Barrington now permits up to three ADUs by right on each parcel in almost every residential district. The recently passed state Housing Bond Bill requires that every city and town in the Commonwealth pass ADU zoning regulations. Creating new ADUs will help to ease the affordable housing crisis while better utilizing existing land and support services.
The advantages of ADUs make it a win-win for landlord, tenant, and the community. It's a big lift to undo a generation that have been taught that bigger is better, that privacy is paramount, and that there are no limits to gathering resources. But bigger isn't better, just more to heat and clean. That privacy yields a false security and is costly in terms of connections and belonging. And resources are finite, there is only so much land and the quest for our share just pushes us farther away.
ADUs are not the only answer but the more we adopt them the personal and community benefits will become obvious. It turns out that the old idea wasn't such a bad way to live after all.
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