Panel Okays First Family/Caregiver Suite

Kit Raven (second from right) with her daughter Celeste Golub, grandson Cayden, and granddaughter Mikayla. The family is the first to take advantage of a 2018 Swarthmore ordinance permitting family/caregiver suites. Photo: Alaine Raven

The Swarthmore Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved a special exception for Kit Raven to build a “family/caregiver suite” at her house on Dartmouth Avenue at its December 22 meeting. Raven’s is the first application for a family/caregiver suite to come before the board since the borough amended its zoning code to permit them in 2018.

The family/caregiver suite ordinance allows homeowners to remodel or add on to their houses to create living space either for family members of the main dwelling’s occupants or for a paid caregiver for an elder or a person with a disability. 

The code limits the size and composition of the suites: no more than two rooms plus a bathroom and an efficiency kitchen (defined as a small cooking area with no built-in stove or oven). The suite may not take up more than 35% of the total floor area of the building. It must share a main door, a street address, and utility service with the main dwelling. It may not be occupied by more than two people. Every year, the property owner must file the name of the suite’s residents, and their relationship with the occupants of the main dwelling, with the borough.

The ordinance was drafted after the borough’s Aging-in-Place Task Force released its final report in 2015. The task force was charged with recommending ways to make it easier for older residents to remain in the borough and to improve their quality of life. More housing options in residential areas was a key recommendation.

“The idea was to add to the options available to borough residents who want to stay in their homes as they age,” recalled former Swarthmore Borough Council president David Creagan in an email. “Council was very supportive.”

The borough’s zoning code ordinarily prohibits homeowners from constructing extra dwelling units on their property. At the meeting, Billings recalled that council and the planning commission discussed at length the risks of permitting extra dwelling units, since they might someday be illegally rented out to people who were neither family members nor caregivers. Ultimately, she recalled, creating additional living opportunities in the borough seemed worth the chance. She added that requiring approval by the Zoning Hearing Board was intended to provide an extra level of scrutiny. 

Raven testified that her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren will live in the main part of the house, while she occupies the new suite. “This is my age-in-place plan,” she said. “My forever home.” 

Carol Menke, who served on the Aging-in-Place Task Force, helped Raven prepare her application. In an email after the meeting, she commended the ordinance for supporting flexible living arrangements, particularly intergenerational households. She wrote, “While allowing lifestyle privacy (important!), elders can provide caretaking services to children and others can provide caretaking services to elders.”

“We need to reweave our elders back into the community by actively integrating them into all aspects of Swarthmore life,” Menke added. “Providing housing options such as the family/caregiver suite is the linchpin.”