[DSOSU] Can Tax and Economic Incentives Work to Nudge Dwelling Design toward Inclusion? Satoshi Kose, Dr., Professor Emeritus, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture.

[Lissner, Scott]

One of the sessions at this year's Multiple Perspectives.
http://ada.osu.edu/conferences/2016Conf/2016program.html

Session A. Can Tax and Economic Incentives Work to Nudge Dwelling Design toward Inclusion? Satoshi Kose, Dr., Professor Emeritus, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture.

This presentation proposes possible policy measures to promote the universal/transgenerational design of dwellings to prepare for the highly aged society, from Japanese experiences. The key idea is to introduce a tax rebate or some subsidies to persuade people toward that direction since the benefit of preparing for one’s own later years is difficult to imagine compared to energy saving, which one can easily learn from monthly energy bill.

In Japan, the future population estimate published in 1986 sounded an alarm because the ratio of people aged 65 and over would amount to a quarter of all the population in 2030. Many Ministries have raised their hands to get budgets to rectify the problems that would inevitably happen, and the Ministry of Construction was not the exception. Research and development projects on built environment design toward the aged society was initiated, and “Design guidelines of dwellings for the aged society” was finally proposed in 1991 and 1992, for multifamily housing and detached houses, respectively.

The guidelines were intended to upgrade the standard level of design and construction of practically all dwellings, so that they are livable by frail seniors, with minor modifications if necessary. The design requirements are not so much different from those proposed in many countries (such as FHAA Design Guidelines or visitability concepts), with minor variations depending on the Japanese way of living.

Simply proposing design guidelines does not change the people’s attitudes. There existed a good leverage to use. The semi-governmental Housing Loan Corporation of Japan (HLC) has been the powerful provider of housing mortgages to those who wished to acquire their dwellings, with lower interest rates than the private sector banks. The difference in interest rate was subsidized by tax money. HLC had been under attack for some time, and in 1996, the government decided that the dwellings must meet one of three government policy requirements, i.e., energy efficiency, design for ageing, or more durable structures. The third requirement was soon eliminated, but the other two continued, and worked fairly effectively. The design for ageing requirements was summarized as: Elimination of level differences inside dwellings, grab/handrails installment, and wider corridors and doors. It started as guidelines, but because of better mortgage conditions, both housing providers and clients were inclined to adopt the terms. It was further reinforced with the introduction of a Housing Quality Assurance system that started in 2000 and the Securing Housing for Seniors Act in 2001. The former utilized the basic concept of the guidelines (with five grade ratings), and the latter adopted the guidelines as requirements to qualify for dwellings suitable for seniors to live in (this unfortunately belittled the application of requirements to limit just for frail seniors, excluding other family members – the original intention was to require all dwellings to be prepared for future residents, not just present seniors).

Unfortunately, the HLC was forced to diminish its role gradually, and finally ended in March 2007 to be changed to a new less powerful organization. Toward the end of its existence, more than half of the HLC clients chose to abide by the requirements on the design for ageing since it was fairly easy to meet for new construction (but more difficult for modification).

The original reason of HLC’s establishment in 1950 was to assist people to acquire their own dwellings, and it also helped boost the economy. Assuming that such ideas are quite common in every country including the US, I would like to suggest that some form of economic incentives be introduced. It could be a tax rebate, some form of subsidies, or whatever. When the introduction of regulation is impractical, it seems to be the only way out.



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