At 87, he can't afford his rent without a roommate. He's far from alone.

Alan Ferber shares a fourth-floor walk-up flat successful New York City with a roommate. At 87, escalating rent costs person go harder to spend connected his own. 

"It's gone insanely crazy," Farber said.

He splits the $2,000 monthly rent for a 500-square-foot flat with Daniel Yafet, a 69-year-old avid biker who sleeps successful the loft.

When asked if helium could retire, Yafet said, "I wouldn't beryllium successful New York if I retired."

The roommates connected done the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, a nonprofit that matches seniors looking to stock lodging costs. When the instauration started matching radical successful 1981, astir of the participants were looking for companionship. Now, astir everyone is seeking affordability.

"I was by myself for a bit, and I thought I should get a roommate conscionable to help," Yafet said.

The nonprofit offers a escaped matching work that pairs "hosts" who person other bedrooms with responsible, compatible "guests" crossed each 5 boroughs of New York City. One of the sharemates, either the big oregon the guest, indispensable beryllium astatine slightest 60 years old.

More than 1 cardinal Americans implicit the property of 65 lived with roommates they aren't related to successful 2024 — a 16% summation from 2019, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

At the aforesaid time, seniors are facing growing fiscal strain amid increased costs for basal necessities.  

In the 50 largest U.S. cities, the rent for a one-bedroom flat climbed an mean of 41% betwixt 2020 and 2025, according to a caller survey from indebtedness marketplace LendingTree. New York had the largest monthly rental summation connected the list, rising $854 for a one-bedroom implicit the past 5 years.

Meanwhile, the mean American idiosyncratic has little than $1,000 saved for retirement, according to a new report from the National Institute connected Retirement Security. The investigation besides recovered that workers from each property groups are lagging down recommended benchmarks for status savings.

When asked if helium could screen each of his expenses utilizing Social Security without a roommate, Ferber said, "Barely. What truly helps people is moving astatine Costco 3 days a week."

Yafet believes the trade-off is worthy it, saying, "I'm amended off, certainly, with having a roommate."

In:

• Senior Citizens
• Housing Crisis