In 1985, The Golden Girls, aired and gave viewers a hilarious and lovable group of women tackling life together in retirement. Today, many are being inspired by this hit TV show and are discovering senior home-sharing as a viable option for senior living. As seniors are living longer, they have to think about long-term housing. Individuals, who cannot afford to live alone, need help paying the rent or mortgage for their own home, or who just want companionship, can all find solutions here. Home-sharing benefits participant financially, emotionally, and mentally and is growing more popular every day.
Getting started on the hunt for a roommate can seem daunting, but senior home-sharing websites exist to help with the process. The National Shared Housing Resource Center provides links to home share programs in each state that can facilitate roommate pairings. Other sites like, Senior Homeshares, The Golden Girls Network, and Silvernest, connect seniors looking to rent out rooms in their homes with seniors looking for safe and affordable housing. Operating like a dating website, users create profiles about themselves, listing their hobbies, likes, dislikes and other things one would like to know about a potential roommate. These sites often facilitate meetings between prospective roommates, provide credit and criminal background checks, and even offer to mediate potential conflicts in the future.
There are also sites that specialize in specific roommate pairings. Roommates 4 Boomers is a female only matching service designed for women who are divorced, widowed, or just seeking a roommate. Roommates 4 Boomers emphasizes home-sharing as a chance to grow a social network and support system while enriching one’s life overall. Nesterly is a site that matches seniors with young people, predominantly students who are in search of affordable housing. Students living in expensive areas can get discounted rent for participating in house-hold chores, making dinner, and simply providing a level of companionship to their older roommates. By narrowing down a demographic of potential roommates, finding the right roommate is easier and more rewarding.
Major issues facing seniors today include financial stability, struggles with isolation, and a decline in social interaction. Senior home-sharing can tackle all of these issues. Whether it be roommates by financial necessity, women empowering one another, or students and seniors cohabitating, senior home-sharing is allowing people to enjoy their lives like the Golden Girls. There are always options for individuals who feel like the conventional ways of long-term housing just aren’t right for them. The resources that home-sharing websites offer can help people who are ready to take on a new chapter in their life, Golden Girls style.
Links to home-share websites:
https://homeshare.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/A-Consumers-Guide-to-Homesharing.pdf
https://www.seniorhomeshares.com/
https://www.roommates4boomers.com/,
https://www.silvernest.com/
https://www.nesterly.io/faq
Sierra Kerbyson
B.S. Health Science, California State University Long Beach
