BURBANK : Fear Prompts Seniors to Seek Roommates

Fear, rather than loneliness, has become a big reason why many senior citizens have started looking for roommates in the days since the Northridge earthquake, according to a woman who finds compatible housing matches.

“They’re scared to death,” said Alzora Cormack, the Share Housing coordinator for the Family Service Agency based in Burbank. Cormack said the number of senior citizens coming to her to find roommates increased by about 25% since Jan. 17.

After the seniors--those 55 and older--fill out a form indicating their preferences about religion, drinking, smoking, hobbies and other potential trouble spots, Cormack finds them a roommate, usually a younger person who can help with the work around the house.

For many senior citizens, the earthquake underscored how difficult and dangerous it could be to live alone, Cormack said.

“They’d be afraid of falling in the bathtub if there was another aftershock,” Cormack said. If they had a roommate, they would have someone who could help them.

The 6.8 quake and aftershocks altered people’s sense of security. “You depend on the ground to be stable, but when it starts shaking that does something to you emotionally. It sort of destroys your sense of security.”

Before the earthquake, Cormack would typically get 20 to 25 applications weekly to share housing, and nearly all of those would be in Burbank or in nearby communities. Since the earthquake, she has received 25 to 30 requests a week, with the applications coming from throughout the San Fernando Valley. “When they lose all their furnishings, and don’t have anything to start over with, that’s when they come to us,” she said.

Immediately after the disaster, 10 senior citizens who had lost their homes or apartments came looking for roommates, some from as far away as Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys. Three of them found housing through her, others got help from family and the rest left Los Angeles.

Some senior citizens want to move to Burbank--which suffered comparatively little damage from the earthquake--thinking it must be safer than the quake-rattled West Valley, she said.

But the need for a roommate also follows an old adage, Cormack said:

“Misery loves company.”