When you were younger, did you move out of your parent’s home to share a living space with a roommate? No doubt your memories of that time are positive and likely negative. Living with someone has many challenges, but singles in their later years are reconsidering this type of living arrangement.
Communal living or cohousing, among women in various stages of singleness (widowed, divorced, never married) is gaining in popularity. Single women live together to pool resources, save money, and also for companionship.
Bonnie Moore, the founder of the Golden Girls Network, shares her five-bedroom house with three other women in their 60s, and has started offering an online service to help other boomer women set up communal houses like hers. I love how she describes her house as “a little bit like family, a little bit like roommates, a little bit like a sorority house.”
sixtyandme.com
Another option is Intentional Communities, which are planned residential areas designed for social cohesion and teamwork. Singles can live in their own domicile and still have interaction with others. Most intentional communities typically hold a common belief system (spiritual, political, environmental, etc.) or follow an alternative lifestyle.
Communal living and intentional communities seem to be more popular among Caucasian women than Black women. However, Black people, especially Black single mothers and families are exploring these options in greater numbers.
Though our story may be closer to Khadijah, Maxine, Regine and Sinclair than Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia and Rose, the basic need community is the same.
Could you live communally with other women?
Related Links
- Women for Living in Community
- The New Housemates
- Boomer Communal Living
- Book: You Gotta Have Girlfriends: A Post-Fifty Posse Is Good for Your Health
- Householding
- Lists of Communal Living Opportunities and Intentional Communities: Fellowship for Intentional Community
Tonya D. Thomas 