At 87, Alan Ferber is still climbing a fourth-floor walk-up in New York City, but he is not doing it alone. To keep a roof over his head, he shares the roughly 500-square-foot apartment with 69-year-old roommate Daniel Yafet. The pair split $2,000 a month in rent, with Yafet sleeping in the loft while Ferber keeps working part time to cover his share. It is a living arrangement that used to sound unusual, yet it is becoming a go-to survival tactic for older Americans squeezed by rising housing costs and thin retirement savings.
As reported by CBS News, Ferber says his Social Security check leaves him only "barely" able to cover his bills, and Yafet told reporters he "wouldn't be in New York if I retired." The two connected through a free city matching program that pairs older New Yorkers who have extra rooms with compatible housemates. Their partnership is just one apartment-sized snapshot of a larger shift in how older Americans are coping with housing costs.
More Seniors Turn to House Sharing
Shared living among older adults is moving into the mainstream. In 2024, more than 1 million Americans age 65 and older were living with unrelated roommates, a roughly 16 percent jump from 2019, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Researchers tie that increase to mounting affordability pressures and an effort to ward off loneliness. For many, taking in a housemate is a way to age in place without selling a home or decamping to a cheaper, less familiar neighborhood.
Rents and Savings Are Squeezing Seniors
Fair-market benchmarks for urban rents have been climbing fast. A LendingTree analysis found that one-bedroom rents in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas rose about 41 percent on average between 2020 and 2025. New York posted the biggest dollar jump, with typical one-bedroom rent up by roughly $854. For older tenants on fixed incomes, those numbers are not just statistics. They are the difference between staying put and scrambling for a roommate.
The retirement math behind all this is not pretty. A National Institute on Retirement Security analysis found that the typical worker's median retirement savings was under $1,000, leaving Social Security and part-time work to carry much of the load for older renters, according to a CBS News analysis. Advocates warn that when meager savings collide with higher rents and medical bills, older adults can see their housing stability and health deteriorate quickly. The triple hit of rent, health care costs and modest nest eggs can unravel even carefully laid plans.
How New York's Home-Sharing Program Works
The New York Foundation for Senior Citizens has been running a free Home Sharing program since 1981, matching hosts who have extra bedrooms with eligible guests. Program rules require that at least one sharemate be 60 or older, and staff help with screening, matching and mediating, according to the foundation. The setup includes background checks, pre-match meetings and written agreements that spell out expectations, all intended to cut down on risk and bad matches. For many participants, that oversight feels a lot safer than rolling the dice with a roommate search on a bulletin board or social media.
For Ferber and Yafet, the trade-off is straightforward. Ferber still works three days a week at Costco, and the extra income helps him hang on to the apartment he knows. Yafet, for his part, told reporters he is "better off" having a roommate. Their arrangement highlights the patchwork approach many older renters are taking, combining paid work, trimmed-down expenses and shared housing in order to stay in their communities. Nonprofits and some city agencies are pushing homesharing as a practical, right-now option while longer-term housing fixes lag behind.
Housing researchers caution that homesharing can stabilize individual households but cannot replace broader solutions like more affordable, accessible units and stronger retirement supports. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies notes that the country faces growing gaps between what housing costs and what older adults can realistically afford. Policy experts argue that expanding subsidized housing, increasing funding for nonprofit homeshare programs and reinforcing retirement safety nets would reduce the need for improvised arrangements. Until those changes take hold, many seniors are likely to keep stitching together part-time jobs and shared living situations just to keep paying the rent.
