T he American suburb has long been the land of the homeowner. For the most part, suburban municipalities permit only one physical form of housing: the detached single-family home, floating on its parcel of lawn and driveway. It’s an image that stands for homeownership, and nearly 85 percent of these structures are owner-occupied . Some communities contain so few accommodations for tenants that they have been defined as “ rental deserts .” But there is no technical reason that a renter cannot