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131 Chapter 10 Housesharing Finding Companionship with Friends—or Strangers Lindsay, a market researcher for builders and developers, was unhappy with her boss and her hour-long commute each way to work. She was only fiftynine , but she realized that she was in a position to retire—far earlier than she’d ever imagined. “I knew it meant I wouldn’t have a lot of money, but I could get by,” she said. to avoid dipping into her savings, she rented out her basement and other rooms in her large home in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. at the same time, her friend of twenty-five years, Sandy, also had a large home and was hoping to cut expenses. after considerable discussion, the two decided to join forces. Lindsay and Sandy are among a growing number of adults sharing a household. For most people, housesharing is motivated by the need to live more cheaply. That was demonstrated by a big jump in shared households that took place during the recession: from 19.7 million to 22 million, an 11.4 percent increase, from 2007 to 2010.1 The study found that people with lower incomes were more likely to be sharing homes. Of those sharing a home, more than three million adults were sixty-five and over in 2010. (In the Census definition, shared households are those with more than one adult over eighteen, not in school, and not spouses or cohabiting partners of the householder, thus it includes both related and unrelated adults.) although most shared households are made up of family members (see next chapter), more than six million of the twenty-two million adults who lived together in 2010 were not related. “It’s important to think about homesharing as extremely flexible and customizable ,” said kirby Dunn, executive director of homeShare Vermont. “Shared housing can be a component of Villages and NOrCs, it can be a housing type and a tool that works with other community models, and a stand-alone approach that works well for independent living or added ser- 132 With a Little Help from Our Friends vices. as opposed to traditional senior housing or a stand-alone entity, it’s really flexible.” Oz ragland, a national leader of the cohousing movement, is a big believer in housesharing. “I find [the increase in people sharing houses] really exciting,” he said. Both cohousing and housesharing offer people a way to stay closely connected to others and avoid isolation and loneliness. Oz is developing a handbook aimed at encouraging people to live together by providing real-world examples, resources, and practical tools. after living for years in Songaia Cohousing near Seattle and worrying about the community’s budget, he and his wife, in their fifties, decided it was time for a simpler living arrangement. They, along with a seventy-four-yearold couple and a twenty-nine-year-old single man, decided to move together into a roomy house on 1.3 acres adjoining Songaia. The house is owned by a small company they created, made up of five families, two who live there and three who live at Songaia. Oz and his housesharers pay rent to the company. “That has tax advantages,” he said. “I’m a renter from that company. The rent can include anything we want. We, for example, want the rent to cover our Internet. Our utilities are all bundled into our rent, and that’s a business expense to the company.” They find they need few rules to govern the household but base their actions on common sense and respect for the others. For example, they considered whether to have “quiet hours” at night. “We talked about it, and we realized it’s kind of silly,” he said. “What is the rule? We wouldn’t make noise after ten o’clock? We know that would bother some of the people, so we wouldn’t do it. We’ve tested how loud to have the television for example. The house is all hardwood and it echoes, unfortunately—that’s one of the things that you don’t want in a shared household.” Oz is motivated more by the close connections than by the financial benefits . “here, we have this long history,” he said. “Mostly what we have is understanding of each other’s needs, and we respect and care for each other.” • In their book, My House, Our House, the three author-friends, Louise, Jean, and karen, tell the story of buying...

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