Shared Housing For Seniors

Shared housing for seniors? Absolutely.

Even if you’ve never lived with anyone besides a spouse or family.

Even if you’ve spent years comfortably living alone.

Being a senior is a new stage of life. It’s different.

It’s startlingly different if you go from a life with a regular job to retirement. No longer needing to leave the house on a schedule, it is possible to spend whole days without going anywhere. Retirement income is likely to be less than what you lived on while working. Medical issues are more likely. And, sadly, spouses die and the widow (usually!) continues to live in a house that was once full of family life — but now she is alone. Tasks that were once easy become more difficult. It just makes sense to join forces with others and share a roof.

Why not allow yourself to have a new adventure?

You have agency. You’ve made important decisions in your life. You can have a completely new daily life experience.

Let me tell you how living in shared housing can be a net positive for you.

Improve Your Life

Here are five ways shared housing makes life better.

– Money/Finances
– Companionship
– Help with tasks
– Mutual Support
– Whole person health

Finances

Paying for a roof over one’s head is a big expense. Even if the house is fully paid off, insurance and property taxes increase yearly. How does a senior on a fixed income manage this? Here is Arnie’s story.

Arnie’s Accordion House

Arnie chose to open her house to shared living after her husband died. She had inherited a large Victorian building in the center of Concord, New Hampshire. She almost lost the house. However, committed to keeping the home she loved, she got creative. She now rents the upper floor to older single women, and rents out common spaces for events and gatherings. She calls it “my accordion house” for the way it expands and contracts with her needs. She kept her home, earns income, and loves her housemates.  Her story is in The Real Scoop. Not everyone has a large Victorian, but many seniors are in homes with empty bedrooms.

Paying too much for housing?

If you are paying more than 30% of your income you are “cost burdened,” meaning that you pay more than what economists consider reasonable for a person to spend. Most likely you are juggling expenses, cutting back on extras, and watching food costs go up.

Limited income

The situation is pretty dire for the those solely dependent on their Social Security check for income , which is about 39% of the senior population!  With average monthly benefits of $2,181 for men and $1,780 housing costs should be less than $654 for men and $534 for women. When a spouse dies and both parties have been living on the two incomes, losing a spouse’s Social Security check can be a debilitating loss.

Making the Choice

Choosing shared housing makes a big difference. It can remove the stress and worry about money. How much money can be saved/earned depends completely on the situation, location, and circumstances. It’s up to you what you can charge/offer.

Many home sharers start home sharing for the financial benefit. We know a special education teacher who rents to medical residents and saves the income to tide her over during the summer months when she’s not paid. There’s Suzanne, who found herself deeply in debt and used renting out a room in her condo as a way to climb out of that hole. There’s Amy, a librarian who wanted to not feel so stressed about money and uses the extra income to treat herself to eating out and other extras.

The money part is obvious. Perhaps not so obvious are some other benefits.

Companionship

It is so easy to be alone in our society! Others have written about the loneliness epidemic. While explanations for why we are so lonely run the gamut from screen time to habits developed during Covid, the number one factor is living alone. 28% of all households in the United States are single-occupancy and this pattern continues into senior years. Living alone is a relatively new phenomenon in modern life and is not how we are wired. Our brains are literally wired to be connected. We humans lived in tribes for millennia. The pain of loneliness strikes the same place in the brain as the pain of hunger and thirst. We feel pain when left alone too long.

And it takes money to do things with friends… coffee? Lunch? Go to a movie?

When you have someone with whom you have agreed to share a roof you have someone to say hello to,  to share about one’s life,  and to talk. It doesn’t require making a phone call or creating a plan to be with someone. It doesn’t require an outlay of money. The casual “Hello, how was your day?” can lift the heart and make a real difference.

Ramay

Ramay was not interested in sharing her space at all! In fact, she was very resistant to it. But she needed the income, so she built a mini-apartment in the back of her garage. The schoolteacher who moved in turned out to be a perfect match, and Ramay discovered that she rather liked knowing that there was another person around.

Connections

A housemate also might introduce you to new people. One of the issues of aging is we’re more likely to lose long-term friends and family. By living with others you can build a new community.

Some people worry that shared housing means having a constant companion. It doesn’t work that way. A housemate is an independent adult with their own life. Every home share situation has its own character, and you choose how much company you want — some housemates share meals, or occasional meals. Other housemates are completely independent.

Of course you have to like your housemate. That’s why we recommend a careful selection process to make sure that you like and respect your housemate and you will be comfortable living together.

Help in Maintaining a Home

Ever felt overwhelmed by household tasks? There are so many big and little tasks that need to be done! From taking out the trash to mowing a lawn, from cleaning to emptying a dishwasher, there is a constant need to do them. In most couples and families these tasks are shared, maybe without really noticing. When you live alone you do it all. Everyone has their own list and their own standards. Being careful to select a housemate who has a compatible understanding of cleanliness and neatness is essential! If it’s a good match, having someone else around who can share the work lightens the workload. It’s also true for seniors that tasks that were once easy become more difficult as physical abilities diminish.

Many home share matching programs specifically arrange for a certain amount of work in exchange for a reduced rent. Tasks can include gardening and yard work, driving for errands or medical appointments, preparing meals, and pet care, to name a few. It depends on the situation.

Mutual Support

Another person at home can help with feeding a pet, getting a ride to an auto mechanic, waiting for a package that requires a signature, or picking up groceries when sick. There are ways that housemates can support each other so much more easily because they are already living under the same roof. For instance, many hospitals do not like to release a patient unless there is someone at home. Sharing housing solves that problem.

Falling is a big risk for seniors. Research has found that one in four adults over the age of 65 falls in a given year.  The  risk of a fall being fatal increases with the amount of time spent on the floor afterward. While having someone at home might not prevent the fall, a housemate may make all the difference in what happens after.

Whole Person Health

Human beings need human beings. All the research on loneliness and social isolation confirms what we already sense: we are wired to be connected. But it goes deeper than that. We need to give as well as receive. Dr. Cacioppo, a leading researcher on loneliness, put it this way: “We all need witnesses to our lives and people to look after.” We feel good when we help others — it’s in our nature. Living with others gives us that daily opportunity.

Caveats and Cautions

The skeptics will warn about nightmare housemates. Yes, they exist — but they almost always result from an incomplete or nonexistent selection process. That’s why we focus on teaching people how to vet housemates thoroughly. A good selection process protects you.

Many people insist they prefer living alone — and that’s understandable. Living alone has its freedoms. But a well-matched housemate shouldn’t cramp your lifestyle; they should complement it. The key is finding someone whose habits and standards align with yours. References matter. Taking time to really get to know someone matters. Rushing because you need rent money leads to mistakes. A careful process helps you avoid them.

Next Steps

Shared housing for seniors just makes sense. We human beings have been banding together and helping each other out for millennia.

Of course, successful house sharing takes work. It takes clarity about who you are and what you need, honesty, and a real process for finding compatible partners. But it is completely doable — there are a lot of good people in the world.

If you’re living alone on a tight income, consider how a housemate could change things. If you’re living with a partner or family, share this idea with the single people in your life. It’s a sensible, smart solution to a real problem affecting millions of people.

Ready to explore shared housing?

Start small. For an honest, practical look at what shared housing is really like, check out  “The Real Scoop: Housemate Stories You Need to Know,” read the  Stories of Sharing. on our site. Sign up for our newsletter and let the idea percolate. If you are eager to go deeper and learn the process for finding your good housemate read the book or take our on line class.

The most important thing is to begin.

*Originally published November 2016. Last updated August 2026.*