Note: Permission to provide the following links is not legally required but we did contact all of the authors/sources anyway and received their permission.
How Senior Women Living Together helps address issues facing women as they get older
580 CFRA | March 21, 2023
With Patricia Boal on Ottawa At Work
Pat Dunn, founder of Senior Women Living Together, talks with Patricia Boal about her personal experiences and how finding community with Senior Women Living Together gives women better opportunities.
Why are we failing older women in Canada?
Toronto Star | March 16, 2023
by Moira Welsh
A growing number of older women, especially those with careers that paid enough to get by but did not offer workplace pensions, live in a precarious financial position that can be brutally isolating.
Roommates in their 60s and 70s
The Record: Waterloo Region | August 18, 2020
by Catherine Thompson
It was always Anna Weber’s plan to work until she was at least 65. But life sometimes throws you curve balls, and increasing pain and fatigue from fibromyalgia forced her to go on disability at age 59, after decades of working a variety of jobs in manufacturing, as a waitress and in long-term care.
Read More….
A widow helps senior women find housing and creates a movement
580 CFRA | August 9, 2020
With Dahlia Kurtz on The Goods
This is a follow-up story related to the original broadcast with Dahlia on October 14, 2019 (information provided below).
A Golden Girls reality check on the housing crisis caused by breakups and aging
Unladylike Podcast: Episode 92 | July 14, 2020
Why does living single usually come with roommates? In part two of three about How to Live Single, Cristen and Caroline get a Golden Girls reality check on the housing crises caused by breakups and aging.
Listen to full episode now….
Trio of single senior ladies who couldn’t afford to live alone, now have a home
Twitter article by Haydn Watters, CBC Radio roving reporter | December 2019
A few months ago, I met a trio of single senior ladies who couldn’t afford to live alone. So they decided to live together. Skip forward 6 months and they just moved into their house in Peterborough.
Read More….
Crisis in Housing for senior women
City TV News – Ottawa with Joanne Schnurr | October 2019
Joanne Schnurr interviewed Pat Dunn and Pam MacDonald in the City TV News studio.
It took a widow to help senior women find housing
580 CFRA with Dahlia Kurtz | October 14, 2019
When Pat Dunn lost her husband, she also lost her ability to afford housing. So she took to Facebook to see if she could find a roommate. What she found were countless senior women in her same position. And what she created was a movement that now has more than 1,500 senior women in Ontario – and it’s growing.
Shared Housing: Affordable Living for Seniors
TVO: The Agenda with Steve Paikin | Aired September 12, 2019
Living with roommates isn’t just for university students anymore: seniors such as Pat Dunn are starting to understand the benefits of pooling resources to live comfortably, too. Her Facebook group, Senior Ladies Living Together, connects potential roommates to save on rental costs and alleviate loneliness. Joining her to discuss this trend is Louise Bardswich, part of a group called the Golden Girls of Port Perry, who recently invested in a shared home.
Facebook Group helps senior women in Brampton and Mississauga find rental accommodation
Brampton Guardian.com | August 23, 2019
By Marta Marychuk
We asked people to send us their story (using the hashtag #housingheroes) if they knew of a person or organization helping people find affordable housing and/or eliminating homelessness in Brampton and Mississauga. Pat Dunn, of Peterborough, started the Facebook group, Senior Ladies Living Together in February, after her husband died. Facing a precarious financial and housing situation, compounded by the loss of her husband, Dunn said she was always attracted to community living and thought that other women in a similar situation might be interested in finding compatible home-mates who would be interested in renting a home together.
Senior Ladies Living Together – It Just Makes Sense
GRANDMOTHERS ON THE MOVE: Episode #40 | August 5, 2019
With Ilana Landsberg-Lewis
Hear Pat Dunn talk about the housing crisis for older women and grandmothers, and how precarious housing can be dire and tremendously stressful. Pat found herself in a housing predicament, and decided to do something about it!
Her search for community and house-mates has led to a FB phenomenon – and a creative and powerful response to the lack of affordable housing for older women. From FB page to a growing movement of women seeking creative alternatives, Pat has tapped into an urgent need, and a passion to do something about it.
I promise by the end of this conversation, you’ll want to add your voice to the chorus clamouring for sister chapters of Senior Ladies Living Together…
These seniors couldn’t afford living alone — so they’re becoming roommates
CBC News | May 29, 2019
By Haydn Watters, Roving Reporter, CBC News
After her husband died, Pat Dunn had to find herself a new home. The couple had been living on a boat for years but she could not afford it without him. So she moved into a trailer.
Dunn lives in a trailer park near Lindsay, Ont., five months of the year and finds somewhere else to stay during the rest. The 69-year-old knows she can’t keep doing that.
So she went looking for alternatives, but money and wait lists restricted her. She figured there were other women in her situation. So she started up a Facebook group in February to look for similar roommates. She called it Senior Ladies Living Together.
Read more…
Senior Ladies Living Together group aims to help northern Ontario women
CBC News | March 23, 2019
By Waubgeshig Rice
When Pat Dunn’s husband died four years ago, she knew life without him would be tough. On top of grieving the loss, she also faced the social and financial challenges of being alone.
“I was trying to find a way to make my income go a little further and allow me an opportunity to do other things besides just pay rent,” she said.
She realized she had to do two things: find a way to survive better on her income and get connected in her community.