Around 76 million Baby Boomers have reached retirement age. All along life’s journey, whenever Baby Boomers have encountered a new phase of life, they stressed institutions, forcing them to expand to accommodate the biggest American cohort in history. Many seniors will enter retirement, lacking the resources they should have saved over a lifetime. Some will retire early at age 62.5, lowering their Social Security monthly income. Many retired after job losses. Then there is senior housing. All will need somewhere to live.
In the past I have written about Golden Girls-style shared living arrangements, after the popular television show that ran from 1985 to 1992. Four upper middle-aged women lived together in one house. Shared housing is a model that is likely to become more common as seniors struggle under the weight of maintaining a household on Social Security. The average Social Security check is $1,881 for men and $1,528 for women, according to Retirement Living . Say the husband dies or a couple divorces (gray divorce is rising fast), and the ex-wife or widow must survive on $1,528 or $1,881 a month, respectively. That is not a lot of money to rent an apartment, buy groceries, maintain a car, and pay for Medicare cost sharing.
A Harvard survey found that 87% of seniors plan to age in place, but not everyone has a place to age. Many will need to rent a place. Perhaps they can rent a room from someone who has a place with more bedrooms than they need. The New York Times reported on shared living arrangements by people in retirement:
Shirley Jennett, a retired nurse, loves her spacious ranch-style house in Denver, with its big backyard and gazebo.
Enter her new housemate, Susan Beese. Despite working four days a week in retail, Ms. Beese could no longer afford her nearby one-bedroom apartment as the rent topped $1,500 a month. She moved out, first staying with friends and then in what she delicately called “a senior women’s facility.”
Now Ms. Beese, who is 79, pays Ms. Jennett $800 monthly for a bright two-bedroom space, with a bath and a kitchen, on the lower level of her house.
For-profit and non-profit organizations have spring up to play matchmakers for people with space to spare and those in need of space to share. The NYT counted around 55 organizations around the country that offers home sharing matchmaking services. Sunshine Home Share Colorado, was formed 10 years ago to help seniors find shared space. The following is from NYT:
Home sharing “is a really efficient way to create affordable housing and to support older people who want to age in place,” Ms. Joucovsky said. Carefully vetting both “home providers,” who may be rattling around in family houses now too big and too empty, and “home sharers” seeking reasonable rents, Sunshine facilitated 31 shares last year, a record for the nonprofit.
Past surveys have found that nearly one-third of 65+ households spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Most of those (80%) are homeowners. They could use some help.
One problem is that many cities and homeowners’ associations (HOAs) prohibit home sharing with nonrelatives. Some state legislators have introduced (or passed) bills prohibiting cities from restricting home sharing. More will be needed. Indeed, cities may also find subsidizing home sharing is a cheaper way to house vulnerable seniors than other methods. Portland, Oregon pays homeowners $1,000 a month to make a room available, or $1,500 or two rooms.
Another problem is how to deal with nonpaying tenants and those who become too infirm to stay. Or, what happens when the homeowner goes into a nursing home or dies? My biggest concern as a homeowner would be how to evict tenants who are no longer a good fit. That is something state and local governments will need to deal with in a way that does not disadvantage landlords. Also, homeowners need legal protection from injuries due to falls.
Finally, there needs to be some safeguards against physical or financial abuse. It is easy to imagine situations where an infirm senior falls victim to an unscrupulous roommate or landlord. It is also not too hard to imagine situations where a roommate’s shifty offspring decides they can move into mom’s room too.
Shared living arrangements sound like a win/win for cash-poor homeowners, as well as those needing an affordable pay to stay. These arrangements could also be valuable for cities grappling with the problem of aging residents on the verge of homelessness. There needs to be laws allowing sharing living arrangements, as well as robust protections for both landlords and tenants. There may even need to be subsidies when that proves cheaper than alternatives like assisted living that Medicaid must fund.
Read more at NYT: To Afford Aging in Place, Older Adults Turn to ‘Golden Girls’ Housing
The Goodman Institute Health Blog: The New Golden Girls: Seniors Sharing Homes for Money and Companionship