Larry and Jane,* out of the goodness of their hearts, have developed what one might call a non-intentional community. Aware of the difficulty of finding affordable housing, they’ve opened their home to a variety of people. As Jane says, “We don’t have a lot of money, but we do have housing. It’s one of the […]
Read More...Housemates Matching—How it Works for Norma
Norma, now 95, has been living with housemates for ten years. She finds her them through Home Share Now , a matching service based in Barre, Vermont. She knew about home share programs because she had had an aunt in the Burlington Vermont area who had been very content with a housemate she had through […]
Read More...Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You
“Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You” is the magnet on her refrigerator. It is a brave, optimistic attitude. Joy summons it up as she copes with her husband’s illness and their growing infirmities. We first met in the late 1960’s and have stayed friends. Her sturdy Russian husband, Walt, worked well into his […]
Read More...Experiences of home sharing (and what makes it work)
Ellen is an experienced home sharer. She has had two experiences of home sharing as the householder (the person who has the lease) and two as a home seeker (the person who is moving into someone else’s home). And in each situation, she has had one good experience and one less-than-wonderful. How She Started Home […]
Read More...A Husband with Dementia Leads to Home Sharing
When the dementia of her husband required more help than she could handle alone, Kathleen began looking for someone who could help lighten the load. Not someone who is a professional caregiver, but simply another pair of hands. Using Her Network She found Alice through her network of friends and community. Alice, in her early […]
Read More...How She Left Silence and Discovered Freedom
“I didn’t like the silence,” said Janet explaining how she ended up choosing a life of shared housing. At the time, she was living alone after the divorce in the house of her twenty-five year marriage. She also retired from stressful, more-than-full-time job as a litigator. Her experience of the silence was such that she […]
Read More...“I’m Bourgeois Now,” Says the Former Commune Member
Richard doesn’t look like a former commune member with his starched oxford shirt, fancy watch and short-hair. “I’m bourgeois now, but I’m a hippie inside,” he says. The commune he helped to found, Packer Corners Farm, lasted for twenty-five years. In its day it was famous. The Experiment It started when Richard and friends from […]
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