Inter-generational home sharing

Adapted extract from the American journal Communities monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.

It is becoming increasingly common in the States for older persons who wish to continue living in their own homes to take in an unrelated tenant - usually a younger person - for chore services, companionship, safety, or financial reasons. This phenomenon is called home sharing. There are several hundred programmes around the country that help to set up home-sharing matches between older home owners and home seekers. About 75 to 80% of older home owners who participate in home sharing matches are female.

One group which works actively to promote the idea on inter-generational home sharing is the National Shared Housing Resource Centre (NSHRC) in Burlington, Vermont. The NSHRC offers training and technical assistance to shared housing sponsors, serves as an information clearing house, and produces and distributes publications on shared housing.

Margaret Harmon, NSHRC Director, 431 Pine Street, Burlington, VT 05401, USA, (tel 802 862 2727). See also page 306 of The Book of Visions (Institute for Social Inventions, 1992) for other such schemes.

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