Housing the "New" Household
2016; Fordham University School of Law; Volume: 43; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0199-4646
Autores Tópico(s)Property Rights and Legal Doctrine
ResumoIntroduction 1205 I. Families and Households 1207 II. Households and Social Policy 1211 III. Housing Design 1212 IV. Economic and Social Justice Considerations 1213 V. Structuring Household Relationships 1216 Conclusion 1219 INTRODUCTION In the United States, most housing has been constructed with the traditional nuclear family in mind. In the suburbs, the ideal was the single-family dwelling. In urban areas, too, the assumption was that a nuclear family resides in a single-family house or in a single apartment in a multiple dwelling. Today, however, people who are related or who are unrelated reside in many configurations--the majority of people in this country no longer live in the traditional nuclear family, (1) and there are increasing numbers of people who live with others with whom they have no familial relationship. (2) In Distinguishing Households from Families, (3) Professor Katharine Silbaugh argues that the law has failed to distinguish between families and households and that housing policies should do more to accommodate the needs of those living in households. (4) Professor Silbaugh's Article provides a valuable contribution to literature at the intersection of housing law and policy and family law and policy. I am pleased to have been invited to comment on her Article, and I hope that the Article will stimulate a wider discussion about planning to better accommodate the needs of the increasing number of people who by choice or necessity live in a variety of residential arrangements. Professor Silbaugh's discussion of the concept of households brought back some childhood memories for me. Growing up in New York City, in Harlem, during the 1950s and 1960s, I often observed a particular residential arrangement: There were a number of single middle-aged or elderly women who were the primary tenants in large apartments. Looking back, it is likely that the apartments were rent-controlled. (5) The apartments were often quite large, perhaps with three or even four bedrooms. It was not clear to me whether the women were divorced, never married or widowed. As a child, it never occurred to me to think about their marital status. Some of these women took in roomers. One room in the apartment may have been occupied by a relative, perhaps a niece or nephew newly arrived from the south, seeking employment with the goal of starting a new life in New York. Another room may have been occupied by a young, single woman from the south, perhaps a schoolteacher staying in the city for the summer to take courses at a university in the city. Also, sometimes residing in such an apartment was what my friends who have grown up in similar neighborhoods have humorously called a Mr. Charles. A Mr. Charles was a roomer, often a very nice soft-spoken elderly gentleman, around the same age as the elderly lady whose apartment it was. These kinds of men were often retirees from modest, but respectable jobs, who, as I look back on it, must have had some source of income--perhaps social security, and/or a pension. In any event, they seemed quite comfortable and content with their lives as we watched them coming and going, always well-dressed and carrying themselves with quiet dignity. As I reflect on these memories from the perspective of adulthood, it was not clear to me whether these women's relationships with Mr. Charles were economic, platonic, romantic, or some combination of these. Some may have been intimate cohabitation arrangements between elderly people in an era when many people were not willing to make such relationships public or explicit. In the situations I have described, the various people living in the apartment were not members of the same family, related by blood, marriage or adoption (although one person might have been related to the landlady). …
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