When writer and business owner Jayne Ehrlich was growing up in the Bronx in the late 1950s, she remembers seeing rows of grannies sitting on deck chairs during the summertime. 

“They all lived with their children,” she said. “It was not uncommon, even though housing was crowded, for children to take in their parents.”

Social scientists identified a dramatic decline in multigenerational living during the twentieth century. But those memories — of seeing neighbors age together — stuck with Ehrlich as she grew older. 

“I saw people moving away from their families, I saw people getting married, I saw people getting divorced and I really became aware of the issue of people living alone,” she said.

A 2022 AARP survey found that roughly one in 10 adults over 50 years old live alone and do not have significant others or children. Among those so-called “solo-agers,” “loneliness” was the top-ranked “worst thing” about living alone and more than half said they worry about not having enough money. 

Growing awareness of those issues inspired Ehrlich to build a matching service to help older people find home shares. 

“The concept, Boomerroomers.com [is] to match people by their housing choices and their lifestyle,” she said. 

A series of questions about location, lifestyle, pets, music preferences, and how much they want to share helps match users. “We have always thought that Boomerroomers could share a home health aide, an electrician, a driver to take them to medical appointments,” she said. “It’s pooling resources to make it safe and affordable [to] age in place with another person.” 

Ehrlich launched the website in January of 2023 but said she’s looking for investors to help build out the technology. 

“That is the first priority,” she said. “Second priority, we [want] to create a community.”

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