{"id":50224,"date":"2026-05-09T19:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-couldnt-afford-housing-near-my-job-i-pay-650-to-live-with-a-77-year-old-and-help-her-with-chores\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T19:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:01:23","slug":"i-couldnt-afford-housing-near-my-job-i-pay-650-to-live-with-a-77-year-old-and-help-her-with-chores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-couldnt-afford-housing-near-my-job-i-pay-650-to-live-with-a-77-year-old-and-help-her-with-chores\/","title":{"rendered":"I couldn&#8217;t afford housing near my job. I pay $650 to live with a 77-year-old and help her with chores."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69fcf8c8e1443b8dc48e2ffc?format=jpeg\" alt=\"An older woman and a younger woman are standing in a kitchen.\"\/><figcaption>Kayla Mazza and Honey Donegan at their home in southern Vermont.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Ben DiFlorio\/HomeShare Vermont<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Kayla Mazza rents a room in Honey Donegan&#039;s home after working with a nonprofit arranging matches.<\/li>\n<li>She pays a reduced rent of $650 to help with Donegan&#039;s finances and occasionally does chores.<\/li>\n<li>The 31-year-old analyst and the 77-year-old nanny get along well and enjoy sharing the space.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This interview is based on a conversation with data analyst and systems manager Kayla Mazza, 31, of Windsor County, Vermont. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Every night, at 7 p.m., my housemate, Honey Donegan, 77, and I sit down to watch Jeopardy in her den. Friday night is often movie night. It&#039;s a lovely bonding experience, despite the 46-year age gap.<\/p>\n<p>Honey and I first met in March 2023, but our friendship has gotten stronger by the day since I moved into her home.<\/p>\n<p>A few months before, I&#039;d landed a job at a nonprofit near Honey&#039;s town, an hour&#039;s commute from my parents&#039; home in Waterbury, Vermont. I&#039;d stayed there temporarily until I found my own accommodation nearer my office.<\/p>\n<p>However, as soon as I started looking, I felt discouraged. There was a lack of affordable housing in the area. Renting a room in a house with four other people can easily cost over $1,000 a month.<\/p>\n<h2>Guests like me are not considered carers<\/h2>\n<p>My new job was at a nonprofit, and I&#039;d taken a pay cut from my previous position. In most cases, I didn&#039;t even qualify as a tenant because I didn&#039;t earn the required amount under the lease.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you live with someone from another generation? Please email Jane Ridley at jridley@insider.com if you&#039;d like to share your story.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A relative told me about HomeShare Vermont, a nonprofit that matches older people with empty space in their homes with people like me.<\/p>\n<p>It&#039;s an arrangement that works financially for both the guest and the host. As well as companionship, the host&#039;s incentives include the guest often assisting with chores.<\/p>\n<p>Guests are not considered carers, but they may help with tasks such as cooking meals, grocery shopping, and rides to the doctor&#039;s office.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69fe293ae1443b8dc48e358a?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A younger and older woman sitting on a sofa with a dog.\"\/><figcaption>Mazza and Donegan with Tinker, one of Donegan&#039;s two dogs.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Kayla Mazza.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Each party is vetted by the organization, and I was excited to be matched with Honey, a part-time nanny, who lives in a four-bedroom house in a homeowners&#039; association.<\/p>\n<p>We settled on a reasonable rent of $650 a month \u2014 the maximum HomeShare allows for a shared-housing arrangement \u2014 plus a percentage of utilities.<\/p>\n<p>My rent was higher than the average $380 monthly amount that HomeShare guests pay, mainly because Honey&#039;s needs were few. Some living situations are more intensive and may require a nightly presence and a set number of hours of assistance.<\/p>\n<h2>The expectations were set in advance<\/h2>\n<p>It worked out really well because I have a full-time job and am very busy. I also like visiting family and traveling a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Honey is the most active senior I know, especially since she has to keep up with little children.<\/p>\n<p>The expectations were discussed in advance of what I should help with, such as watching her pets \u2014 two cats, two dogs, and some fish \u2014 when she&#039;s away or stacking wood in the winter.<\/p>\n<p>We really clicked and have never needed HomeShare&#039;s mediation if problems ever arise between housemates.<\/p>\n<h2>We&#039;re both avid readers<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to liking Jeopardy and funny movies, we have other things in common. We hike together, walk the dogs, and swim at a nearby lake.<\/p>\n<p>We have similar political beliefs and are both avid readers. Honey, who is extremely empathetic, would never judge me for curling up with a book for an entire weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, we have open conversations about coming from different generations. The arrangement makes good financial sense, and it&#039;s stimulating and rewarding.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kayla Mazza and Honey Donegan at their home in southern Vermont. Courtesy of Ben DiFlorio\/HomeShare Vermont Kayla Mazza rents a room in Honey Donegan&#039;s home after working with a nonprofit arranging matches. She pays a reduced rent of $650 to help with Donegan&#039;s finances and occasionally does chores. The 31-year-old analyst and the 77-year-old nanny [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}