Making Room: Housing for a Changing America is the latest effort from the AARP Livable Communities initiative. It is adapted from an exhibition of the same name organized by the National Building Museum and the Citizens Housing & Planning Council in partnership with Resource Furniture and Clei. The 84-page publication aims to capture for posterity the examples and information presented in the temporary museum exhibition. It is available for free here (you have to send a quick email to obtain an automatic download link or order a printed copy).

The report begins with an eye-opening look at America’s evolving demographics, including these facts:

By 2030, more than 1 in 5 Americans will be age 65 or older.

Only about 1% of the nation’s housing is currently equipped to meet the needs of senior citizens.

Single adults living alone account for 28% of U.S. households, but more than 80% of the nation’s houses and apartments are built with two or more bedrooms.

Households consisting of unrelated adults sharing a home are as numerous as nuclear families (20% each).

A Housing Market That Doesn’t Meet Americans’ Evolving Needs

The mismatch between how we live and how our homes are set up for us to live causes a number of problems, which the report spotlights. For aging Americans, a home that is too large, too geographically isolated, or not ADA compliant can mean the difference between being uprooted from your community and being able to “age in place.” For younger and lower-income Americans, cost of living increases have dramatically outpaced stagnant incomes, and the burden of renting or buying a home falls heaviest on single adults, for whom options are scarcer and competition for housing often intense.

Making Room identifies policy measures that can help address these housing mismatches. One is reforming zoning codes, including such standards as height, lot coverage, density and occupancy maximums, minimum setbacks, and minimum parking requirements, all of which don’t explicitly mandate single-family homes but may make it impossible to build anything else in many locations. Another is broadly legalizing “missing middle” housing types, to provide an alternative to the dichotomy of single-family homes on one end and large, expensive apartment and condo complexes on the other.