My solution to the housing crisis: move in with granny (but not your own)

It’s a love story, or rather a moving tale of mutual appreciation, that should inspire many of us. It’s about Gayoung Lee and Marcy Arlin who live together in Brooklyn, New York. They share chores – the one who loves to mop, mops, the hoovering aficionado does the vacuuming. They met online and now they eat together but otherwise lead very separate lives. All of which may strike you as a little more interesting than any other description of house-mates. Except that Gayoung is 25 and Marcy, 73. Yes, a Gen Z is living with a Baby Boomer and the arrangement is perfect. And that was the intention. The couple met through an app called Nesterly, inspired by a US organisation called the Intergenerational Homeshare Program.

You add your details as you might when using a dating service: Marcy was “a short, happy 70-year old woman with a little dog called Izzy”.

Noelle Marcus who founded the app was struck by data that suggested there were 54 million spare bedrooms across the States that sit empty every night. Surveys have also shown that the older generation is the fastest-growing segment of America’s urban population and, crucially, 90 per cent of those older adults want to remain in their homes. By 2035, 50 per cent of those homes will be lived in by solo adults. That’s a lot of spare rooms.

And what makes Nesterly interesting, is that it creates commercial arrangements between strangers. Those who engage in the process do so respectfully. When it works it’s a rather beautiful thing and Granny is not taking in a grandson. Because when a 20-something moves in with a grandparent, they have to listen to all that dull family stuff. The, “when your Dad was eight years old…” tedious anecdotes, tip-toe through family politics, discover uncomfortable family secrets. When a grandson mows Granny’s garden, he’s sucking up to her. When a tenant does it for free, it feels good and she might cook them supper.

The pair can acquire knowledge from each other, the older some tech skills, the younger, jam-making. The Gen Z can learn, with growing fascination, the life story of the Baby Boomer, and it might surprise the younger tenant to discover who can drink who under the table. 

The crushing fear that must come upon a widow or widower faced with the necessity to downsize evaporates when the burden of those extra rooms becomes not only a money spinner but security, protection and help that comes with a good tenant.

Obviously, tenants need vetting to avoid the prospect of devious young people, serial tenants, going from house to house and getting old biddies to change their wills. But when young people need a room and a non-relative to spill their heart to and the oldies have beds to spare, it could be a beautiful tonic for our fractured society.