{"id":224390,"date":"2026-06-21T14:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T14:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224390\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T14:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T14:06:09","slug":"pennsylvanias-golden-girls-law-lets-unrelated-adults-share-a-home-but-connecticuts-version-was-stymied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224390\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania’s Golden Girls law lets unrelated adults share a home \u2014 but Connecticut’s version was stymied"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Pennsylvania, lawmakers just got one step closer to making it easier for adults who aren\u2019t related to form shared living arrangements<\/a>, with its cheekily named Golden Girls Law.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the bill that seeks to do away with occupancy limits that restrict how many unrelated adults can live together.<\/p>\n

Must Read <\/p>\n

With the rising cost of living, it\u2019s easy to see why retirees on fixed incomes would be keen to share expenses \u2014 utilities and home insurance have spiked across the country, and property taxes and HOA fees have climbed for many Americans as well.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s Golden bill <\/p>\n

While the characters in The Golden Girls \u2014 four mature women, three of whom aren\u2019t related \u2014 famously lived together in one house, Rep. Tarik Khan wrote in the bill\u2019s co-sponsorship memo that the same scenario wouldn\u2019t be legal in Pennsylvania (1).<\/p>\n

The characters \u201cchose to share a home to save money and support one another like family,\u201c Khan wrote. \u201cWith housing costs rising so quickly today, sharing space like that is more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Khan, the state is short 265,000 affordable housing units. The bill seeks to eliminate \u201carbitrary limits on unrelated roommates,\u201d and Khan writes that occupancy limits \u201cdrive up housing demand and prevent friends, workers, older adults and families from saving money by sharing a place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House passed the bill on June 8, and will now head to the state Senate for consideration (2).<\/p>\n

But while Pennsylvania may be moving toward allowing this kind of living arrangement, other states are pushing back.<\/p>\n

Read More: Robert Kiyosaki has a grim warning for baby boomers. This is what he recommends to protect your wealth<\/a><\/p>\n

Connecticut house speaker says residents would be \u2018unhappy\u2019 with students renting <\/p>\n

Connecticut was on its way to passing a similar bill of its own, also referred to as the \u201cGolden Girls bill,\u201d which would have meant that homeowners could rent individual rooms to long-term tenants (3).<\/p>\n

But, according to the CT Mirror, although the bill passed through the Senate, the House of Representatives never heard the bill, reportedly due to opposition from House Speaker Matt Ritter, the report said.<\/p>\n

Story Continues <\/p>\n

Ritter had concerns about college students renting out rooms in a wealthy neighborhood in Hartford, the report says, referencing emails from a lobbyist to Ritter\u2019s chief of staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if a neighbor is unhappy about four unrelated people who are 19 years old or 22 years old living in the house? The owner says it\u2019s occupied, but nine months out of the year they\u2019re in another state. I mean, the question really comes down \u2014 to me \u2014 about who enforces it, and how would you deal with a situation like that?\u201d Ritter said in an interview with CT Mirror.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s Golden Girls bill, however, circumvented this issue. Before it passed, it was amended to give local governments the ability to limit occupancy if unrelated people are students at a college or university (4).<\/p>\n

Other states that have passed their own \u201cGolden Girls\u201d laws include Iowa, Colorado and Oregon (5).<\/p>\n

The social benefits of communal living <\/p>\n

An op-ed in Governing argues that homelessness skyrocketed after regulation of single-room occupancy (SRO) units from the 1950s to the 1970s \u201cdecimated\u201d the country\u2019s stock of small, affordable, dorm-like apartments with shared amenities.<\/p>\n

It added that allowing for living arrangements, Golden Girls-style, with friends could also let older adults reduce their expenses (6). And there\u2019s an added bonus: It could also provide health benefits.<\/p>\n

A 2023 Surgeon General\u2019s report on the health impacts of social isolation found that \u201cthe effects of social connection, isolation, and loneliness on mortality are comparable, and in some cases greater than those of many other risk factors\u201d such as smoking, physical inactivity and high blood pressure (7).<\/p>\n

The report also notes a massive economic cost due to social isolation in older adults: \u201cAn estimated $6.7 billion in excess Medicare spending annually, largely due to increased hospital and nursing facility spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-living for older adults can mean a built-in community that provides not only social connection, but the possibility of care as well. With the high cost of long-term care, and the fact that Medicare doesn\u2019t cover it, co-living could help bridge the gap for those who don\u2019t have family that can provide in-home caregiving.<\/p>\n

And while living with roommates in your golden years might have been something you\u2019d only see in a TV comedy in decades past, now it\u2019s a growing trend.<\/p>\n

According to a Realtor.com report, data from roommate-searching platform SpareRoom show that the fastest-growing demographic for roommates is adults 65 and older (8). Their share of the overall market \u201chas more than tripled over the past decade,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

You May Also Like <\/p>\n

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Article Sources <\/p>\n

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PaleGIS (1<\/a>), (4<\/a>); WTAJ (2<\/a>); CT Mirror (3<\/a>); Pew Research Center (5<\/a>); Governing (6<\/a>); U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (7<\/a>); Realtor.com (8<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: Pennsylvania’s Golden Girls law lets unrelated adults share a home \u2014 but Connecticut’s version was stymied<\/a><\/p>\n

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Pennsylvania, lawmakers just got one step closer to making it easier for adults who aren\u2019t related to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49246,3613,97450,49249,97451,18036,28,30,29,2038,47777,97452],"class_list":["post-224390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-golden-girls","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-living-arrangement","tag-living-arrangements","tag-matt-ritter","tag-older-adults","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-robert-kiyosaki","tag-tarik-khan","tag-unrelated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}