ABOUT THIS SERIES

Over the next decade, the number of Americans 65or older will roughly double. Soon, older people will outnumber children. And by 2060, about 1 in 4 Americans will be old enough to retire. Aging will happen even faster in Southern California.

The Southern California News Group is launching a series of stories about the Aging Boom. We'll look at how our population is changing and what that might mean for all of us in key aspects of our lives.

Today: Where will we live?

Oct. 9: Who's going to pay for it?

Following the initial three installments, look for stories on health care, business and pop culture. If you have ideas for other stories, please contact projects and topics editor:

was too small.

In 2003, their son-inlaw got a job transfer from Arizona back to Southern California. But with home prices soaring at the time, Allyson and David Way couldn't afford to buy back the house they had sold several years earlier.

If the two families pooled their resources, Reid Kawai thought at the time, they could double the size of his house and move in together. Independently, David and Allyson were thinking the same thing.

The Kawais and the Ways have been sharing their now-spacious San Gabriel Valley house for the past 19 years. That has meant splitting the costs for shelter. It's also meant jointly raising the Ways' three children.

Sometimes, when David and Allyson were busy working, Reid and Catheryn would drop off or pick up the kids from school.

It's worked so well that they're ready to do it again.

The families are seeking permits to convert a detached garage into a separate, two-bedroom cottage. If approved, that'll become home for the Ways' oldest daughter, son-in-law and their 3-month-old grandson. By next year, four generations will share one single-family lot.

“It's a real blessing for us,” said Caitlyn Shin, 22, the Ways' eldest daughter. “We're nowhere near ready to buy a house. … (Now, we'll) have some time to save money.”

The four-generation household is likely to become a model for the future, experts say.

While intergenerational households are common around the world, they're currently more common in the United States among Asians and Latinos. But with the population aging and homebuilding lagging, particularly in Southern California, three- and four-generation households could become common for people of every racial and ethnic background.

“Basically, young people can't buy houses. Multigenerational families are just evolving,” said Dowell Myers, a USC professor who specializes in demographic impacts on housing. “(Seniors) have a big enough house. They can accommodate family, kids and an older person or the older couple.

“I think it's a sort of a natural adjustment. If you want to keep your kids in town, you got to provide them housing.”

Differences and clashes of values sometimes arise in the Kawai-Way household, family members said. But that pales in comparison with the amount of love and support they provide one another.

“I was never alone,” high school senior Kylie Way, 17, said of her upbringing. “There's always someone to go to in this house.”

Allyson Way, 45, said it's now her parents' turn to be taken care of.

“It's kind of our deal,” she said.

Homeownership gap

As the number of older households increases to unprecedented levels, inequalities are becoming more evident.

The latest census figures show that 76% of local White residents 65 and over own their homes, while the same is true for just 56% of older Black residents, 63% of older Latinos and 63% of older Asians, according to state demographers.

That will translate into increasingly unequal housing options for seniors.

Owning a home provides older people with greater housing security and more predictable costs than renting, housing expert Molinsky said in her congressional testimony. Ownership is associated with far greater wealth. In 2019, the median renter household headed by someone age 65 or older had just $5,800 in total wealth, compared with the median homeowner's total wealth of $343,000.

“Over 60% of Black Americans in California are renters,” said Carlene Davis, co-founder of Sistahs Aging with Grace and Elegance, or SAGE, a group focusing on the needs of African American seniors. “If you're not living in an area where there's rent control ... that creates other vulnerabilities to homelessness.”

Families taking in older adults provide a potential safety net for some seniors. But if their relatives are out of state, Davis said, “that family safety net is not there.”

The effects of that vanishing safety net are already becoming clear.

A 2019 University of Pennsylvania study of

homelessness in Boston, New York and Los Angeles projected that L.A. County's homeless senior population will nearly double to 13,900 from 2020 to 2030, including almost 2,500 who will be 75 and older.

While homeless seniors are expected to account for just a small fraction of all older L.A. County residents, even one is intolerable, said UCLA Professor Randall Kuhn, the study's co-author.

“There was a time when it was seemingly quite rare for people over age 65 to be unhoused ... so the emergence of this phenomenon is troubling,” Kuhn said in an email. “More troubling still is that homeless older adults are growing several times more rapidly than the old-age population in general.”

Still dancing

Miller, who left Foothill Ranch for Los Feliz earlier this year, volunteers twice a week at Food on Foot, a program that helps feed people who don't have a permanent home. Her own brush with homelessness “woke me up to their situation,” the retired art teacher said.

Miller is giving back after the home-sharing program helped her find Niven's rambling three-story home, filled with family photos, art, books and keepsakes.

In just a few months, in addition to being roommates, Miller and Niven also become close friends. They share a bohemian outlook. Miller is a devotee of the Indian spiritual leader known as Amma. Niven has practiced Buddhist chanting for 42 years.

Each day at 4 p.m., Niven cranks up his living room stereo, picks an album from his eclectic music collection and the two get their exercise, dancing to the likes of Elton John, The Beatles, Madonna and “Flashdance.”

“I love dancing,” said Niven, who joined a professional dance troop in his youth. “We dance to something different every day.”

Niven has lived in the home off and on since his parents bought it in 1960. Apart from a handyman who lives in a backyard coach house, Niven had been living alone in his six-bedroom home for 11/2 years.

“I was very lonely,” Niven said. “A social worker at Kaiser told me about (the ALA Home Share program) and I said, `It sounds great.'”

A program matchmaker interviewed both Niven and Miller, visited the house and decided they'd do well living together. Niven and Miller both say they're happy with the arrangement.

“I had an extra room and was very much looking forward to having someone share (the house) with me. I wanted a housemate,” Miller said. “It's been a dream come true. I could not have found a more wonderful, compatible person in the world.”