Message from the President

BY MICHAEL J. QUARANTA

U.S. Census data show that Delaware is one of the oldest states in the country. This has several implications; however, notable among these is housing. We do not have enough senior housing inventory to accommodate the fastest growing segment of our population. This means we need to build more apartments with elevators and senior living facilities offering a wide range of care options, from independent living to part-time care and full-time assistance. Lifelong Delawareans need these options, as do the thousands of newcomers to our state who have relocated here from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

But hidden within this reality is the housing need for working adults who support this population of seniors. Where will the EMT’s and paramedics live? What about the nurses, hospitality workers at our restaurants and hotels, and retail employees at our outlets, pharmacies, and grocery stores? The list of working-age adults and the jobs they perform to support this older population, and all of us, is very long. Land-use planners should take a hard look at current zoning maps and give serious thought to these present-day realities. We have all heard stories about how expensive senior living options are and how high rents have become. In my opinion, there is a direct correlation between the shortages we experience in senior living and multifamily inventory and the prices charged for these limited living spaces. If you agree, it follows that a greater abundance of inventory will benefit seniors, working-age adults, and their families.

On the other hand, some might counter that land prices are inflated, and therefore the economics of impacting housing prices are negligible. Perhaps that’s the case. One potential “work around” could be for the state government, which is a substantial property owner, to abandon older or unimproved properties in its possession and make them available for development. Many of these state-owned properties were probably purchased decades ago and were once at the edge of development. Today, however, some of these sites are in the middle of developed communities and could be converted to address the costly nature of land prices. Whatever the case may be, we need to get busy making the need for diversifying our housing inventory a reality.