City Hall to Help with Aging In Place

February 21, 2013 udcom

In Virginia, the City of Alexandria is offering home improvement programs to help residents enhance the safety and comfort of their homes. The Home Rehabilitation loan program is administered through the city’s housing office, and is the largest program offered. It is funded by the Federal Community Development Block Grant and HOME programs, and designed to help low income Alexandria families complete costly home repairs.

Another program offered is the Rental Accessibility Modification program. This program is also administered by the housing office and allows low income families in rental units to take advantage of home improvement grants of up to $50,000.

Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.