Sustainable City Services: Cycle of Housing Stockand Age of Residents by Scott and Jenny Ranville
HUMAN LIFE PROJECT Creating Enlivened, Strong, Sustainable Communities for All Ages
When looking at city services, do the needs fluctuate from decade to decade or half century to half century? For example, robust school enrollment followed by declining enrollment and then a rise in enrollment again. With the approaching "grey tsunami," the need for senior services will greatly increase. However, in roughly 40 years when the Boomer generation is mostly gone the need for the senior services will be reduced. Littleton, located near Denver, has done a good job in making the city an enjoyable place to live. Many residents want to stay in the city as they age. However, a number of residents have expressed a desire to downsize their larger houses as they become empty nesters. The problem is limited housing options within city limits, much less within the family neighborhoods that they have grown to love. Thus, to downsize, they would have to move to a new neighborhood or out of
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the city. The challenges that Littleton faces is becoming more widespread among cities. This lack of housing appealing to older adults appears to be a major reason for school enrollment fluctuation. The cycle of young families moving into newly constructed neighborhoods is reflected in school enrollment increasing. As the families age, the kids graduate and move out of the house, but the parents cannot downsize, which keeps the family house under occupied for 10, 20, 30 plus years. Can schools weather the long cycles of housing turnover to young families? As a case example, the graph below shows the fluctuation of Littleton Public Schools enrollment.1 In the last few years, Littleton did close 2 schools due to falling enrollment.