Elderly sharing housing with younger housemates

Adapted extract from an article in Newsweek (USA), monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.

77 year old widower Walter Smith, threatened by escalating property taxes in Vermont, and by house maintenance costs, now shares the extra rooms in his house with housemates - a middle-aged couple, an old farmhand and a college student. He was matched with them by a Vermont project called SHARE (Shared Housing Alternatives for Rural Elders). Sharing can keep an elderly person from going to a nursing home; Walter Smith's housemates keep track of him and he reciprocates.

'Sharing can keep an elderly person from going to a nursing home'

A similar group called Philadelphia Match can place a person in shared housing for a cost of about $500. By comparison, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's average cost for a new unit of housing comes closer to $70,000. So it is a very cost-effective way of creating housing.

You can rate how well you like this idea. Click 0-10 below and press the Submit button.
Bad Idea <- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -> Great Idea
As of 05/28/96, 10 people have rated this page with the overall rating (0-100%) of: 87%

Previous / Next / Table of Contents