As I interview people sharing houses,  I notice a generational shift about sharing housing. The folks who came of age in the late 60’s and after, are more comfortable with the idea that the WWII generation.  This makes sense. The WWII generation came of age when marriage, 4 children families, and a stay-at-home mom were the norm.

These folks, now in their eighties (more or less) just have a harder time imagining how it would be to have someone, not in their family, live with them. They simply didn’t have any experience of group homes in their formative years.  And yet maybe this elderly person needs the informal social exchange that I think is so valuable in sharing housing.  How important is it to have someone to say “good morning,”  “good night,” and “how was your day?”  I think it can be very important. I remember my elderly great aunt who lived in a big house in Washington DC by herself. She had no social life, all her friends had died. She talked daily with her sister, my grandmother who lived in New York City.  My aunt managed her loneliness by drinking. I wonder how different it would have been for her if she had shared her house so that there was life in it.

There are programs for matching seniors with younger people who offer work in exchange for rent. These programs are few and far between. And they are hard to set up – in part because the elderly are resistant to sharing their homes. I think they need to hear good stories of successful house sharing relationships. Do you have a story? Tell us.

“The time has come!” declared Malcolm Johnson, Chairman of Homeshare International, in his welcome and introductions to delegates at the First International HomeShare Congress. In a world with a growing elderly population living alone, and with housing prices trending higher, it simply makes sense to match older householders with younger renters who can offer help with daily tasks in exchange for housing.

Delegates to the congress came from England, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Australia. All are working on developing homeshare programs, but the programs are quite different. Some are only to help elderly and disabled. Other programs are open to matching people of all ages. One program in the United States works specifically to help the homeless find housing. Some programs are for profit, but most are not for profit. Some are funded by the government. In Australia, this year, for the first time, the Victorian State budget has funds to support homeshare programs. In France and in Germany, steps toward homeshare funding by government entities are being taken.

A common theme was the difficulty of making good matches. It takes time and effort. The older generation is not used to the idea of sharing their home, hence there are often fewer householders offering housing in exchange for help than there are younger people interested in living rent-free. It may be that the baby boomer generation will be more open to the idea of homeshare than the World War II generation is. Questions were raised about how to market homeshare and whether it would be better to have homeshare matching be more like a dating service (Harmony.com?) than the very personal and time-intensive matching system used by most of the agencies.

Delegates told stories of relationships between the householder and the caregiver in which both people were changed by their relationship “ their worlds made richer by the reciprocity of giving inherent in the homeshare arrangement.

Despite the difficulties cited, the delegates are committed to the concept of homeshare. It is a simple idea that the world needs.

Article on Healthy Aging website.  From article:

“Social participation and integration have profound effects on health and well being of people during their lifetimes,” said Berkman. “We know from previous studies that people with many social ties have lower mortality rates. We now have mounting evidence that strong social networks can help to prevent declines in memory. As our society ages and has more and more older people, it will be important to promote their engagement in social and community life to maintain their well being.”

Does this mean that seniors who share their homes fare better than those who live alone? What do you think?