The house I lived in was a ranch - style house.

It had two bedrooms, had a garage attached to it, which I liked.

I liked to work on my vehicles, but I can't anymore.

We're talking about environments, both within the home and outside of the home, that work for the people.

So that really is a very personalized situation.

It was more the expense of the oil, the rent.

One of the last winters he was there, we were actually having to help him pay, because it was just so expensive.

We need more options for people to have affordable housing, so that they can also afford, especially seniors on fixed incomes, they can afford good nutritious food, and they can afford the medicines that they need.

Sometimes they're making choices that are not in their wellness interests.

My husband sort of said one day, let's figure out how to get a little house and get him in our backyard, where he would be right here, that we can see him every day, and we wouldn't have to worry about the heat, that he could hook in to us, and we can help with that.

Our Opening Doors Together conference, it's all about affordable, accessible housing options across the state of Pennsylvania.

Shared housing, or the ECHO cottages, innovative, supportive housing options for older adults.

There is an ECHO program through the Union County Area on Aging that helps with that.

So Dad was already a member of the Area on Aging, so I called his social worker from the area.

She got him on the list right away.

Most older adults are trying to retain their independence, and so what does that mean to this person versus the next person?

Everything is handy.

I don't have a lot of room to go through to get to where I want to go.

Get my own meals and do my own laundry.

This is comfortable to me.

I really like this.

And I'm right here with Heather, and if I need anything, I can just holler and let her get help.

So it is nice that we can get here quickly with work.

When he was in Kissimmee, sometimes it would only be once a week, or once every two weeks that I would be able to make it over to actually see him.

I definitely do not want to be in a nursing home.

Even to go into an assisted living home or even apartments where it's a bunch of other right on top of each other, we knew that was not something he would enjoy.

Some of it's about the mindset of the community and that seniors need to live in special places for them.

And I think that there's more of a mindset now that intergenerational communities are more natural and what more people want.

We also work with Union County Housing.

And so he does pay rent to them because obviously they're the ones that place the house here.

It wasn't a cost to us at all.

The actual only out-of-pocket cost that my husband and I had was we had to have our septic pumped and inspected according to Center Township rules.

But other than that, the area on aging and HUD housing, Union County Housing paid for everything.

So he does pay rent to them each month, but it's nominal compared to what he paid at the other place.

People want to feel safe in their homes.

And that is both a physical safety as well as an emotional and psychological safety.

I like this little house.

I think it's fun.

We're really creating solutions for that person's environment so it works for them.