Cherie Greene and Lauranne Wingard are 63-year-old roommates, and they’re best friends.
“We both have the same warped sense of humor,” Greene said. Sitting next to her, untangling a spool of yarn, Wingard agreed.
“And we love playing with words,” Wingard said.
But it’s been a rough road to get here. Before they began sharing their two-bedroom apartment, they both struggled to find — and keep — affordable housing.
Greene was the first to move in here. She bought the apartment building on Manchester’s West Side about 10 years ago. She lived on one floor and rented the other to a tenant, thinking the tenant’s rent would help her pay the mortgage.
“That worked out really great for about six months until I lost my job, and then my tenant lost her job,” she said.
Suddenly keeping up with mortgage payments became impossible, and Greene couldn’t find a new apartment she could afford to rent, now that she was unemployed.
Wingard has also struggled to find places to live. She came close to being homeless a few years before she began living with Greene. She was supposed to move in with a friend at the time, but her plans fell apart.
“I almost ended up staying in my car because I didn't know where I was going to be because I couldn't afford anything really,” Wingard said.
Her daily plans included moving her car around town, so she wouldn’t get towed or ticketed. Before that could happen, she received a small inheritance and was able to rent a room at a boarding house.
Nearly one in four New Hampshire residents who face homelessness for the first time are 55 and older. The number of older adults experiencing homelessness in the state has also increased every year since 2020.
Christina FitzPatrick with AARP New Hampshire says older adults face unique economic risks. A single incident can lead to an older adult losing their housing, but it’s often several factors adding up.
“If you're an older worker and you lose a job, it's often very hard for you to find another job or another job that pays as much,” FitzPatrick said. “You're also at risk of your spouse or partner dying, which can cut your income by a lot, but it doesn’t cut your expenses by a lot.”
You’re also more at risk of becoming disabled or suffering a medical emergency as you age. Fixed incomes can strain someone’s ability to respond to these kinds of health challenges while also holding onto housing.
For some people, family members have to be their safety net. That was the case for Greene.
“I don't know where I'd be living if Pat hadn't come to my rescue,” Greene said.
Pat is Greene’s adult child, a software engineer in Massachusetts. When Pat heard that Greene might lose her home, Pat decided to buy the building from her and let her stay there.
“In retrospect, it was a little bit of desperation because there wasn't many other places that we could find that we could afford for my mom,” Pat Greene said.
Pat is charging Greene and Wingard rent, but it’s relatively low. Greene found a new job and she pays about $400 a month. Wingard pays $500 a month. To break even on the mortgage, taxes and building maintenance, Pat charges the tenants on the top floor rent that’s closer to market rate.
Many people don’t have family who can swoop in and buy their home like Pat did, and even Pat isn’t sure how long this setup will work.
“It's still sometimes scary,” Pat said. “She's getting on in years and she's had a steady job now for a while, and that's really wonderful. But how many economic downturns is she away from not having that job?”
This housing solution isn’t what Greene and Wingard had envisioned for themselves, but they’ve embraced it. They pick up each other’s medications when one of them is sick, and they take care of the rose bush in front of the house. Like good roommates, they look out for each other.
