Students living with seniors find cheaper rent and a ready-made community
Marquette students live at St. Camillus for about $500 a month, trading volunteer hours for housing and intergenerational community.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
Students living with seniors are turning retirement communities into an unlikely campus housing option, with cheaper rent, built-in company and a quieter night scene than most dorms.
MarketWatch reported that Daija Holliday, 25, moved from North Carolina to attend Marquette University in Milwaukee and found housing at St. Camillus Life Plan Community, a senior living center with more than 600 older residents. Holliday, who is studying counseling psychology, said the setup felt familiar because she grew up in her grandparents’ home.
Her rent is about $500 a month for an independent apartment, according to MarketWatch, about a third of the local market price for a one-bedroom unit. In return, she does eight hours of volunteer work each week with residents.
That work can mean coffee and newspapers, errands, Saturday fitness classes and game nights. Holliday told MarketWatch the arrangement is not built for students chasing late-night action, saying the community gets quiet around 7:30 or 8 p.m.
Why are students living with seniors?
The appeal is not just the rent. Sheri Steinig, director of strategic initiatives and communications at the nonprofit Generations United, told MarketWatch that more young adults are living with older people in settings ranging from retirement-community apartments to home-sharing, as the U.S. deals with housing costs and loneliness.
Intergenerational living means people from different age groups sharing a residential setting in a way that encourages regular contact. In these programs, students may receive reduced housing costs while spending time with older residents through social visits, activities or informal day-to-day interaction.
Marquette’s program began in 2022 and drew inspiration from a 2012 program at the Humanitas retirement community in the Netherlands, MarketWatch reported. There, university students can live rent-free in small apartments if they spend at least 30 hours a month interacting with older residents.
Other campuses are trying similar ideas. St. Olaf College in Minnesota launched an initiative last year that lets students live in townhouses at a retirement community and mix with senior residents, according to MarketWatch.
Jennifer Molinsky, director of the Housing an Aging Society Program at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, told MarketWatch that loneliness affects both younger and older people, and that shared living can bring different skills, energy and opportunities into one place while pushing back against stereotypes.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy identified loneliness as a public-health epidemic in 2023, MarketWatch noted. He said loneliness carries health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is linked with higher risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death.
How the Marquette program works
Stacy Barnes, director of the Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center and founder of Marquette’s Students in Residence program, told MarketWatch the program is open to Marquette students of any age or major. So far, participants have been taking graduate-level or more advanced classes.
This fall, five students will live at St. Camillus, MarketWatch reported. Barnes said the program looks for students who want more than low-cost housing, including people mature enough to live among more than 600 older adults and open to real social interaction.
Students can use St. Camillus amenities including a gym, pool, movie theater, restaurants, lounges and a pub. The community also gives each student a monthly restaurant credit to encourage meals with residents, according to MarketWatch.
Shojin Samson, 23, came to Marquette from India to study to become a crime analyst. He told MarketWatch that St. Camillus felt like a safe place and reminded him of the mixed-age community he knew at home.
Samson said he lost his grandparents when he was about 6 and found it easy to connect with older residents at St. Camillus. Jeremy Pust, executive director of independent living there, told MarketWatch that students bring companionship and energy, especially for residents whose relatives are far away or absent.
This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch.