The house at 257 Oakland Ave. looks like lots of homes in Pittsburgh and the Oakland neighborhood around it. It’s an old, three-story, brick building with a large front porch.
But it’s not just another South Oakland house full of college students.
Inside, it’s Pitt’s Healthy Home Laboratory — a more than 100-year old house that has become a real-life laboratory. Researchers here aim to develop new technologies to help people stay in their homes as they age, as well as to test existing technologies already on the market. The house and some of the work researchers are doing there were on display during a recent open house event, as part of an anniversary celebration for Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research.
Many people want to be able to remain in their own homes as they get older. But in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, much of our housing stock is not age-friendly.
“The older housing stock of the Pittsburgh region, along with the long tenure of many residents in their current homes, means that most of Allegheny County’s older residents are living in homes that are significantly older than is typical elsewhere in the U.S.,” according to a 2022 report on aging in Allegheny County.
There’s no better place to study this issue: Southwestern Pennsylvania is one of the oldest regions in the country, with a high proportion of elderly residents. And, those residents tend to live in their houses for a long time. The same report noted among Allegheny County homeowners 65 and older who own their homes, more than 34% live in homes that were built prior to 1950, and more than 70% of older Allegheny County homeowners live in homes that were built prior to 1970.
Downstairs, in the Healthy Home Lab’s living room, the house’s antique details like leaded glass windows, pocket doors, and fireplace molding are surrounded by high-tech instruments measuring air quality and checking for mold. Signs instruct cleaners to not clean certain areas, so dust samples can be collected.
Zach Roy, a research engineer and project coordinator at the lab, said the home reminds him of the houses of some of his elderly relatives. It also has some of the same problems an older person could face trying to live here, he explained.
“The issues are typically the same: steep, narrow staircases, bathrooms not on the correct floor, old building materials,” he said.
Jon Pearlman, the lab’s technical director and department chair in Pitt’s Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, said when they initially walked through the house before purchasing it, there was a queen-size bed in the dining room, because one of the home’s older residents could no longer climb up and down the stairs.
“It really demonstrated an example of a house that was multigenerational, it was loved and cared … for many years by the same family, but became inaccessible for the family anymore. And so it really spoke to us,” and the lab’s mission, Pearlman said.
The HHL has been awarded nearly $1 million dollars from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its research efforts. It also gets funds from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System, state of Pennsylvania, and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.
“For western Pennsylvania in particular, we see a lot of housing stock that very much matches closely with this lab,” said Michael Horvath, field office director for HUD’s Pittsburgh Field Office, who was visiting the lab during the open house. “There's a lot of things that they're doing here, research that's going to impact a lot of homeowners, particularly those of low and moderate incomes, as well as people who are looking to age in place.”
The lab has also partnered with Allegheny County’s Area Agency on Aging.
“We're able to provide expertise on …what types of services and supports would be valuable for the folks who give us a call,” said Shanna Tharp Gilliam, who heads the office, which receives tens of thousands of calls annually on its senior hotline.
Upstairs, Dave Brienza, a professor in Pitt’s Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, showed off one of the lab’s innovations. Called Mobius, it’s a system that can be used to easily install grab bars and other railing systems, or even furniture or exercise devices.
“We heard from multiple people facing the problem of having grab bars installed in their house that they had difficulty with the installation process,” Brienza said. “It was just too hard: they couldn't find the studs in the wall, they couldn't do it themselves, they didn't have the confidence to do it themselves, or some people tried to do it and they did it in an unsafe manner.”
And one key feature of Mobius, Brienza, said: it looks nice, like decorative trim or woodwork — and not like something you’d see in a hospital.
“It's easy to attach devices to, but where it's not needed, you can cover it up and it looks normal in the space,” he said.
Making sure technology is not only functional, but also something that people will actually use is key, Pearlman said.
“Our intention here,” he said, “is to make sure we're not only meeting the functional needs of individuals, but also that it fits into their home and still makes it feel like their home.”
