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I'm a student who moved in with an 86-year-old to save on rent

Last fall, I was living with three roommates in a rickety 1970s single-family home in East Vancouver. The place was falling apart: our roof collapsed in October of 2020, and our landlords did a lousy job of patching it up (they put a tarp over it and called it a day). Rotting insulation fell around the dining room and kitchen, and rodents had invaded the house through a gaping hole in the foundation. We were four students living in a cheap place to save money— I was only paying $500 a month in rent—but it had become a nightmare.

I started looking for a new place. I wanted to find a rental that was both cheap and close to Simon Fraser University, where I’m a master’s student in virology. I saw an advertisement on our university newsletter for a program called Canada HomeShare, which pairs students looking for affordable housing with seniors who have extra space in their homes. In exchange for cheaper rents that range from $400 to $600 a month, students help out around the house and keep seniors company. I had moved in with strangers I found on Craigslist and Facebook before without any major issues, and this seemed more or less the same. I followed the link on the advertisement and filled out an application form.

Four months later, I received an email from the program, inviting me for a Zoom chat with a potential roommate to check for compatibility. There I met Michael: an 86-year-old man who has housed students in search of a rental ever since his own children moved out about 30 years ago. We hit it off right away: we talked about kayaking, which he enjoys and which I picked up just last summer. The social worker had scheduled 30 minutes for our chat, but we were so wrapped up in discussion that we talked for more than an hour.

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