Lifestyle

Becky, 72, Drained Her IRA After Housing Costs Ate Half Her Income. Then She Got a Roommate: “I Have Room in My Heart for Another Person”

By Curtis Jones · November 11, 2026

In 2022, PBS NewsHour correspondent Paul Solman met Becky Miller, a 72-year-old retired receptionist in Longmont, Colorado. For years, her main companion at home had been her bird, Maxi. The bird, Solman noted, does not pay rent.

Miller was having trouble making ends meet.

“I’m single, so I wasn’t able to put a lot into my IRA. So I depleted it,” she told the program. “My mortgage and my HOA fees were over half of my income. So I decided for financial reasons to get a roommate.”

A year and a half earlier, Marlene Mears, then 64 and divorced, had moved in. “I like saving money. I like having another person to talk to, to have a relationship with,” Mears said. “It’s nice to have some companionship when you’re at home.”

They found each other through Silvernest, an online service that matches older homeowners with housemates. Miller was not sure at first that she wanted someone else in her space.

“I thought, oh, my gosh, somebody’s going to come in and use my kitchen,” she said. Mears did. It worked out better than Miller expected. “I don’t have to cook supper every night,” she said. They take turns, and when Solman visited they were making dinner for a friend.

You can watch them tell the story in PBS NewsHour’s 2022 report on YouTube.

The squeeze she described has not gone away. When Solman interviewed her, Harvard housing expert Jennifer Molinsky told PBS NewsHour that more than a third of older adult households were already cost burdened, spending over 30 percent of their income on housing, and that half of those households were spending more than 50 percent. In an August 2025 analysis of 2023 Census figures, the Joint Center for Housing Studies found that 43 percent of older homeowners with mortgages were cost burdened. Miller’s mortgage and HOA fees were over half her income, a heavier share than the 30 percent cutoff.

Miller later put the change in simpler terms. “I get a feeling of peace,” she said. “I have always been by myself. And I discovered that I have room in my heart for another person.”

Taking in a housemate is not the right move for everyone, and the report made that plain. Some of the retired women Solman spoke with said they would rather cut other spending than share their home with a paying roommate. If you are weighing it in order to keep a house you cannot quite afford alone, a few practical steps can help.

Put the terms in writing, including rent, bills, chores, guests and how either of you can end the arrangement.

Talk through the daily details in advance, including the kitchen, which was the first thing Miller worried about.

Meet in person, check references, and consider a short trial period before anyone fully moves in.

If the real problem is the mortgage or the HOA bill, a HUD-approved housing counselor can walk you through options for staying in the house, with or without a housemate.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. Details of Becky Miller’s income and housing costs are her account as reported by PBS NewsHour in 2022. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.