COUNTYWIDE : They Share Housing and Friendship
When Phyllis Fleming’s marriage ended, she discovered she needed a roommate to help pay the mortgage and keep up her four-bedroom home in Westminster.
“I was alone in the house and I didn’t have a lot of money,” said Fleming, 56. “And I was lonely, so I wanted a roommate.”
After the first boarder moved on, Fleming had trouble finding another compatible roommate--until a friend told her about “senior shared housing.” The roommate referral service successfully matched Fleming with a responsible boarder who helps pay housing costs and keeps her company.
Senior Shared Housing, a free countywide program that helps senior citizens find housemates, has found homes for 7,000 participants countywide since 1978. The program helps affluent and low-income seniors find companionship and well as cut costs.
Since the program serves mostly older women with annual incomes under $13,000, it recommends that home providers charge half the fair rental rate for a one-bedroom apartment in the county.
While the average monthly Social Security benefit pays $650, the current monthly rental rate is $732, up $31 from last year, said Robert Melendez, the county’s shared-housing coordinator. Home providers are encouraged to charge from $300 to $350.
“Supply cannot keep up with demand for affordable housing in Orange County,” Melendez said. “If you have someone on a fixed income, they are not going to be able to afford the rentals here. There’s just no way.”
The program, administered by the Orange County Housing Authority, places participants in mobile-home parks, single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums, Melendez said.
“As long as it is a facility that is decent and affordable, we can try to place people there,” he said.
A shared-housing coordinator serves as a sort of matchmaker, providing clients with the names and numbers of prospective roommates and sometimes pushing pairs to meet. They suggest screening questions, provide a sample rental agreement and make other recommendations for success--such as giving the match a weekend trial run.
After living alone in her mobile home, Pat Wootten, 56, wanted company. But when a shared-housing coordinator recommended 64-year-old Barbara Watz, an amputee, Wootten hesitated.
“When they called about Barbara, I almost didn’t meet with her because they said she was in a wheelchair and I have a mobile home with stairs,” Wootten recalled. “But they encouraged us to meet because they really felt we would work, so I said ‘OK’ out of courtesy.”
That was 18 months ago. Wootten and Watz formed a strong partnership and now split household duties according to their abilities. Watz does the cooking and cleaning and Wootten handles the outside work and heavier chores.
“We’re also involved in each other’s families,” Wootten added. “Her grandchildren call me Aunt Pat. We go out together and eat dinner together.”
Watz, who calls her handicap “an inconvenience,” lives on Social Security and disability benefits. If she really wanted to live alone, her children might help finance a home, she said, but “it’s actually nice to live with someone.
“I wanted to find someone neat and clean and easygoing,” Watz said. “I’m little hyper, (Pat’s) kind of laid back and that’s a good balance. . . . I just found someone that was good for me and I guess she did too.”
