Elders need places to live, and land use rules shouldn’t block them | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Nationwide communities face zoning delays that stall elder-care housing projects.
- Prolonged approval fights strain caregivers, residents and operators, eroding trust.
- Policy makers must update land-use rules to enable local, dignified elder housing.
Across America, families are quietly asking the same question: Where will our parents live when they need care — and will they still belong? This question is no longer abstract. It is personal. It is urgent. And it reflects something many of us are only beginning to confront about how our society approaches aging.
As more Americans live longer with complex care needs, communities across the country are being asked to reconsider how housing, care and belonging intersect.
In Washington state, my husband and I built Kensington Gardens — one example of a growing number of elder-care communities nationwide created to answer that question with compassion. For more than 13 years, we have worked to create a place where older adults live with dignity, safety and connection — remaining part of a community rather than separated from it.
Our journey began in 2012, after my father suffered a life-altering stroke. Medical care helped restore his body. Human connection restored his spirit. That experience reshaped our lives and revealed how profoundly environment and belonging shape the aging experience.
Like many elder-care proposals across the country, our project encountered resistance shaped by fear, uncertainty and rapidly spreading online narratives. What should have been a routine land-use request stretched into years of delays, shifting interpretations, repeated hearings and prolonged uncertainty — a pattern increasingly familiar to elder-care providers nationwide.
Federal housing laws reflect a widely held principle: aging does not erase a person’s right to stability, dignity or belonging. Yet translating that principle into local policy can be complex, particularly when fear and misinformation move faster than facts.
The effects of prolonged delay are not abstract. They place strain on caregivers, staff, residents and families who depend on continuity and trust. And still, care continues. Elders wake each morning expecting stability — and that expectation deserves respect.
America is aging. This reality presents both challenge and opportunity: to design communities that support people across the lifespan, to keep elders visible and valued, and to plan with empathy as well as practicality.
How we answer these questions will shape not only elder care, but the kind of communities we are building for ourselves and future generations.
Our elders deserve care.
They deserve stability.
They deserve belonging.
Not someday, not somewhere else but here — among us.
Kelly Watson has led Kensington Gardens as CEO since 2011. A seasoned construction professional, she has owned and operated a consulting firm focused on corporate construction project management since 1990, combining long-term industry experience with strong leadership.