When Shelley’s father was no longer capable of living on his own, Shelley went looking for a way for him to live. She knew that an institutional setting would not work for him. She says, “Dad had to be in control. He needed to make all his own decisions.” It’s common for people to turn to shared housing for seniors.
Shelley, who is a Canadian, researched world-wide and put her ideas together from bits and pieces into something she knew would work for her father in Canada —his own personal space in a home with four others who also owned their space within the same home.
The First House
Shelley made arrangements with a homeowner to renovate his single-home into four suites. Each suite has a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room. In that first house, because her father required some homemaking services the home started as a “Level B” home for support services (up to thirty-five hours per week) the other co-owners who also bought in were also required to accept the same level of homemaking services. This was in 2009. None of the original owners are currently alive today. When each person passed, the Estate Trustee can then put the suite back up for sale on the open market and it can be re-sold to a new co-owner. The house completely changes in character with a new co-owner, making each home very unique. Today, the home is now an “A” level home with no homemaking services, only property maintenance and selection process services. It’s like a “Golden Girls” home now.”
When asked about compatibility issues, Shelley dismisses them. “Most of the issues take care of themselves. We have found what happens is everyone sits down for lunch and dinner together and then they started hanging out together, going to movies together and eventually that included other activities outside the house. Together as a small cluster community they have more choices and full control of the governance and finances of the home.”
Continued Development
Solterra Co-housing, the company Shelley founded in 2009 now works to develop more homes throughout Ontario. These suites are can be sold separately, each person owns his/her own private space and shares the rest of the common areas of the home. Each suite is can be listed on the Canadian MLS (Multiple-Listing Service used by all real estate agents.) Solterra Co-housing and a Joint Venture partner usually purchase the building and complete the renovations, meanwhile the marketing to sell the suites starts immediately. Each home is unique and different based on the number of co-owners their personalities and level of homemaking services required.
Legal Challenges Won
Shelley spent almost five years in legal challenges with municipalities. She says, “They lost every Ontario Municipal Board challenge.” Now that she is on the other side of those challenges she is confident that she has set the legal precedents for Solterra to move forward without further delays. The gist of the win is that municipal zoning doesn’t control who lives in a house. A single-family home with multiple owners is still a single-family home or SRDU (Single Residence Dwelling Unit) because there is only one kitchen.
Shelley comes to this work both from her experience as a real estate Broker of Record and as a member of a family that has been in the homecare business for over fifty years. It’s important to her that Solterra also provides services that are available to people from the lowest to the highest income levels.
Going Forward
There is a lot of interest in Solterra Co-housing. Shelley is starting to work with strategic partners who have the deep pockets to make the initial investments in property and renovations.
As Shelley says, “I get a call from a larger city in southern Ontario that they want to access five hundred shared homes within the next five years. How am I going to deal with that?”
Commentary
What Shelly is doing is what I hear a lot of people want. A suite with bathroom, bedroom and sitting room is enough space to feel comfortable about having one’s own privacy. The shared kitchen and other common spaces allows for companionship. The legal structure of owning one’s own suite resolves the issue of who is in control.
I’m a bit surprised that Shelley dismisses compatibility issues. It may be that in choosing to do this the individuals make their own decisions about how well they’ll get along before buying into the arrangement. That said, I do believe that people of good heart can get along and and have a good home together.
What do you think? Does the version of senior co-housing make sense to you? Would you like such an option? What if they were rental units rather than purchases?
Read more about how to find and create a shared housing environment: Sharing home with other adults? Remodel to Keep Peace , Home Together Canada
where can this be found in the US? I’ve found lots of things outside of the US but nothing w/i the US. In fact most of the sites I’ve tried to register on are showing not secure when it even comes to registering for the site. Should be fairly transparent however I’m finding that sometimes things are not as they appear to be when it comes to shared housing for boomers. It’s all about a membership fee and it should work the opposite way…once you find a compatible roommate then pay the fee.
I don’t know that any do exist in the States, yet. But I think it’s a good idea and one that should be pursued. The thing about any of the matching databases is that there have to be scads of people in them for them to be useful. For that reason I’m trying to provide resources to help you to do it yourself. There are millions of boomers who are feeling the squeeze of high housing costs and low retirement benefits. I’m told by many that reading my book was instrumental in helping them know how to go about it. IT takes some work but the potential benefit to finding a good housing solution with others who are good fits are so worth it! HTH
I live in California, U.S., and I found the website, needhelppayingmybills.com, recommending to contact churches that help with House-sharing. I emailed 3 major churches and one responded with unhelpful information and two ignored me. I tried the Hospitality Club, which is more for travelers, but got no responses there. I received a very compassionate and helpful email from the Human Investment Project(HIP) that’s listed on the National Shared Housing Resource Center suggesting that I post on nextdoor.com. I’m reluctant due to privacy. I posted on a senior match site, (I’m a senior too) but that was probably not a good idea because I learned after I joined that there are spammers and young people are plaguing the site. Do you have any suggestions for where I can find a temporary(2, 3 months, maybe a little longer) House-share? I did find emoregon.org, which is what I’m looking for, but in the San Francisco East Bay Area. I only need a temporary House-share because I’m relocating when my Veterans housing portability voucher is processed, approved and I can move.
California is a big state! Where are you? TTN-Home in the East Bay has a listserv for looking for housing options. National site here: https://www.thetransitionnetwork.org/home. In LA, Silvernest.org is developing a critical mass. They are a matching site. But mainly I tell people it’s a DIY (Do it yourself) craigslist is still the main source where people post places and look. Read my book to learn how to use it safely. Seriously. IT is possible.
Good luck!
I looked at the transition network site and it’s close to my area, but not in my county. After writing my last post, by the grace of God, I somehow came across these three sites that are hopefuls for house-shares, house-mates, temporary stays in my area, especially the last two. http://christianhousing.org/housing/default.asp scrolling down on the home page shows different groups for different types of housing. http://www.seniorcarebrentwoodca.com/About-Us/Resources.html this site includes one city in my area. This one, https://safetimehost.org emailed me back and asked to speak with my Housing Case Manager. After coordinating with my Case Mgr. and me signing a release of information, both are now connected to discuss temp house-share for me. Thank you for your blog. It is inspiring.
So glad you are getting help. I give you high marks for persistence! And thanks for sharing what you found.
There are cohousing complexes in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Three have been around for 20+ years, two or three are in development now. An additional is looking for land.
In one in development, planning is in the later stages and they’re looking for owners, it’s been professionally planned to the “T”, w/ Charles Durrett (the best), keeping costs down and quality up. They’re affordable and green. It’s called Village Hearth, in Durham. Go to villagehearth.com.
For US-wide info & a directory of cohos, go to cohousing.org
I have lots of info if you want more.
The cohousing developments in the U.S. are quite different from Solterra Cohousing. In the U.S., cohousing developments are much like condo developments, with individually owned townhouses or apartments, built by the owners-to-be as an intentional community and with more extensive common areas than condos would have. Most will have between a dozen and several dozen units in a number of separate buildings and will include a large common house with a big kitchen and dining room, laundry, guest rooms, etc. Solterra sounds more one big shared house but with individual — and individually owned — suites, all under the same roof. I haven’t heard of anything like that in the U.S., but it sounds very interesting.
I appreciate being able to netwok here ! I live NOW in Pioneer Valley CoHousing in Amherst, MA. I do not have the $s it take to buy into CoHousing. A few owners rent out rooms and sm units in their basements. Even AirBnB is done, which is not an encouraging trend nation wide, and increadingly regulated by muiciplaities, because it reduces long term rental spaces.
Hello ~ all the points made here are food for thought (and action). I like Annamarie’s point that both renting and buying-in ought to be options. I imagine, that among residents in one house, physical abilitieis may change, to the point that Level A services may be desired by some, but not all occupants, or any version thereof. Also, it is not clear to me WHO invests in the initial alerations/renovations? A home owner who sells after renovations re done? A speculating individual, who buys a home, converts and then resells? Both? Thank you. My first choice is living in a larger community, with a focus on Elders, but not exclusively so.
The Solterra concept seems very attractive! It will probably take some deep pocket investment, however, because it’s hard to scale a concept like this without seed money. I would imagine a lesson could be taken from time-share co-ownership, which has become popular in vacation home sharing.
Glad you like it. Yes, there’s definitely a need for some initial investment. But maybe if a building can be renovated to create suites rather than built from the ground up it’s doable? We shall see.
It sounds like a really interesting set-up. But what’s even more interesting to me — and what makes it work — are those Level “A” and Level “B” services. Can anyone explain what those are?
It’s part of the Canadian system of care. I suspect if you google it you can find out.
An “A” level home is like a “Golden Girl” home where we provide only property maintenance, administrative support and assistance with the selection process. A “B” level home is less than 35 hours of homemaking services weekly and a “C” level home is over 35 hours of homemaking services weekly.
Our services include shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, transportation and assistance forms etc…. as needed
Thank you for the explanation. Are these services available as a public benefit in Canada, or through a private care provider? And does the cost depend on ability to pay, or is it a flat rate for each level of care? I’m in the U.S. and am trying to figure out how senior care in Canada differs from what’s available here.