It’s expensive to live in the Western U.S. In Rocky Mountain resort towns, short-term vacation rentals have usurped affordable living options, while high-paying tech companies have driven up prices in the California Bay Area. The wealthy elite’s appetite for wilderness has made the American dream of owning a home impossible for low-wage workers in places like Montana and Wyoming. Seven of the 10 states with the greatest housing shortages are in the West. The lack of affordable housing can make one feel hopeless, but Samantha Paige Rosen’s new book offers a variety of contemporary perspectives on an age-old solution: communal living.
The essays and interviews in Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection (Beacon Press) argue that communal living needn’t be just a forced practicality of those who are financially squeezed, but rather a winning arrangement that bolsters support and connection.
“The messaging in American culture that living independently … is an important milestone, even an achievement, is nearly inescapable,” Rosen writes. Yet it remains out of reach for many. “Shaping our homes to better address physical, social, emotional and financial needs is essential for our survival,” she writes.
In her late 20s, Rosen was living alone while grappling with her mental health, her sexuality and chronic pain. When her rent was increased by 10%, she moved back in with her parents and was surprised to find full-spectrum relief. She and her parents worked well together, pitching in around the household. The arrangement lasted five years, well after Rosen was back on her feet.
“The messaging in American culture that living independently … is an important milestone, even an achievement, is nearly inescapable.”
That experience brought Rosen to ask: “How might we live together in order to have happier, healthier, and more connected lives?” Alongside 21 contributors — from 20-
somethings to nonagenarians, all of whom currently reside in the United States — Rosen explores the many reasons why people live communally.
In one tender essay, Adam Vitcavage, founder of the literary platform Debutiful, writes about repairing a family relationship in Arizona, where rent increased by 72% between 2010 and 2022 while the median sale price of houses rose by 57%. His sister moved in after a divorce, and their new proximity helped the two siblings heal their nearly estranged relationship. By living together, they were able to “stop wearing masks … maybe for the first time.”
Housing shortages have driven away families, forced long commutes and strained senior citizens in San Francisco, where Jake Montano’s essay describes finding a home in the queer community. Montano recalls their experiences in drag pageants under the drag name Imelda Glucose and tells how they joined a house formed by a chosen family, many of whom were estranged from their family of origin. This chosen family, they write, “plays a critical role in addressing and remedying experiences of homophobia.”
Los Angeles County’s population has decreased by more than 500,000 over the past decade, but the housing demand has grown due to an increase in single residences. There, author Gabrielle Korn started renting out her home office on Airbnb to make ends meet. Surprised by the emotional connections she forged with the guests that filtered through, she founded The Pink Door Artist and Writer Residency, inviting creatives who would not otherwise be able to afford such an opportunity.
Housing prices in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in the nation’s richest county, have skyrocketed due to the extreme luxury demanded by status-seeking celebrities and plutocrats. In response, Adam Meyer hosts popular monthly dinner parties for friends and strangers, most of whom have been priced out of homeownership. This ritual began during Meyer’s college days, when he daydreamed about all his friends living together in one big apartment building. “I really did love that part of dorm life —
walking by your neighbor’s room, seeing their door open, and chatting for thirty minutes.”
Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection
Samantha Paige Rosen
208 pages, hardcover: $32
Beacon Press, 2026.
Living, Together reminds us that we can reimagine and reshape the world and make it into something new. And some places have: Boulder, Colorado, recently repealed occupancy limits explicitly designed to curtail the existence of co-ops, while residents of a Durango mobile home park worked together to purchase the site with help from a land trust. In other parts of the country, Rosen takes us to intergenerational neighborhoods that benefit everyone by housing seniors alongside families adopting children through the foster system.
In a world of private equity and astronomical prices, where vacant second homes haunt resort towns, people are coming together to solve problems and live communally. In her big-hearted introduction, Rosen nods to another anthology editor, Margot Kahn, who describes the form as “the town hall bound in pages.” Anthologies invite discussion and counterpoints. In our current world, where even town halls are sites of polarized conflict, this choir of voices harmonizing about building community deserves a warm welcome from readers.
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This article appeared in the July 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Let’s get together.”
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