At a recent CodeNext meeting members of the advisory board argued that building smaller units would make Austin less “family friendly.” This is a common objection to densification and the creation of multi-unit buildings. It is an emotionally compelling argument, but it is objectively wrong. The main fallacy is that it takes a very limited view of what a family needs over the course of its lifetime.

For the sake of argument lets say smaller units are studio, one and two bedroom units. The argument goes that stereotypical nuclear family will not live in these apartments. Opponents argue that building these units do not support families staying and living in Austin. I think those opponents don’t have families here in Austin or else they would understand why that is not the case.

Let’s look at my family and what it needs. There are currently three generations of my family living in the Austin area and one additional generation six feet under here in town. There are my parents who are empty nesters, two sets of uncles and aunts who are empty nesters, 4 cousins (3 of which are single and one has a long term boyfriend) my younger sister who is single, and an older sister with a husband and two kids. I have made a graphic below to show how this divides and what housing we need.

As you can see our family needs a variety of housing. We have four singles who need 4 housing units and small units would be ideal. We also have 5 couples, two young couples and three empty nesters. Though one of the empty nesters wants to stay in their larger house, my parents and one set of uncle/aunts wants to downsize. So that is another 5 units of housing and a 1 to 2 bedroom would be perfect for 4 of the 5. Lastly, there is the nuclear family that wants the single family home with a yard.

As you can see, an Austin that is “family friendly” to us is one with a wide variety of housing types. It plays out in practice also. My little sister lives in a row home, my girlfriend and I live in a small multiplex, my cousins all live in apartment buildings and my parents and aunts and uncles are constantly looking for relatively affordable smaller units to move to. We just don’t have enough of them. So much of our city is zoned to only appeal to the nuclear family which only represents 10% of the housing units my family needs.

Of course families change, so let’s even look at this in 10 years.