She's not a statistic. She’s someone you know.
Little Ol’ Lady Housing
A compassionate partnership for aging women.
1 in 3 older women lives alone.
More than half spend over 50% of their income on rent.
Adults 65 and older are now the fastest-growing unhoused population in the United States.
Our Approach
More than 10 million women over 65 in America cannot afford a place to live. Not a better place. Not a safer place. A place, period.
In Essex County—ground zero for New Jersey's eviction crisis—70% of older adults report economic instability. Aging women living alone on fixed incomes face rising rents, mounting medical costs, and a housing system that was simply never designed with them in mind.
Few developers—for-profit or nonprofit—have made housing designed specifically for aging women their primary focus.
Little Ol' Lady Housing (LOLH) is the first.
HANDS is launching LOLH because four decades of community development work have shown us, again and again, that the women who built these neighborhoods deserve to age in them with safety, security, and comfort.
Little Ol' Lady Housing didn't start in a boardroom.
It started with Janis Pryor, a veteran of politics and media, a longtime Jackson, New Hampshire resident, and a woman accustomed to spotting problems before they become crises—until the housing crisis arrived at her own door.
When her landlord announced he was moving into the home she rented to retire, the housing crisis was no longer abstract. It became personal, immediate, and, as Janis put it, “outrageous.”
Stories started finding her: a woman in her sixties in Maine, working full-time at Walmart, living in a garden shed. A New Hampshire couple in their nineties told to leave a home they'd rented for forty years. A Jackson woman who spent two nights in her car after losing stable income—and eventually drove cross-country because there was simply nowhere else to go. "There's not a woman in this country," Janis says, "who doesn't see a bag lady and shudder, hoping, praying that'll never be her."
How It Works
LOLH creates permanently affordable homeownership pathways for single women aged 65 and older. Homes are held in a Community Land Trust—so when one resident transitions out, another aging woman moves in. Affordability is preserved permanently.
Residents are paired with a young professional or workforce neighbor living in a below-market accessory dwelling unit on the same property. In exchange for reduced rent, the neighbor provides minor assistance to the older resident. Mutual support is written directly into the lease.
Every home is built or renovated with universal design from day one—accessibility, safety, climate resilience, and aging-in-place features designed in, not added on.
LOLH is currently piloting in two communities:
Urban — Essex County, New Jersey
Rural — Jackson, New Hampshire
Become a Monthly Donor: Help sustain ongoing eviction prevention and housing stability support for aging women. Even modest recurring gifts help HANDS intervene before women lose housing. Donate here.
Join the LOLH Founding Circle: Become an early supporter helping launch a new housing model for aging women during the June–August startup phase.
Sponsor the 90-Day Launch Phase: Support the initial research, documentation, outreach, and housing design work taking place this summer as HANDS develops the LOLH framework.
Schedule a Conversation: Meet with HANDS leadership to learn more about partnership, sponsorship, investment, or strategic collaboration opportunities.
Join the Email List for Updates: Stay informed about the initiative’s progress, upcoming events, research findings, and opportunities to engage. Sign up here.
How to Get Involved
Who LOLH Serves
LOLH serves the full spectrum of aging women — working artists, retired professionals, grandmothers, women who are fully active well into their seventies and eighties, and women who need a measure of supportive services to remain safely housed. Every resident is seen as a whole person, still living fully, still contributing.
This is not a nursing facility. This is not transitional housing. This is home.
Refer a Partner, Funder, or Resource: Introduce HANDS to philanthropic leaders, healthcare systems, aging organizations, foundations, financial institutions, architects, developers, or others interested in housing stability and aging equity.
Volunteer Professional Expertise: Offer technical assistance, legal support, design expertise, financial guidance, communications support, or other professional services that can help strengthen the initiative.
Spread the Word: Know someone who should know about LOLH? Here's how to help get the word out.
Post about LOLH on social media and tag us—every share puts this issue in front of someone new.
Talk about it. At your next board meeting, family gathering, or community event, mention that HANDS is building something new for aging women. Word of mouth still moves mountains.
From Personal Crisis to a New Model
Janis spent nearly seven years researching, designing, and refining the concept that would become LOLH—smaller homes paired with accessory dwelling units, built on a new economic model for an overlooked and growing population. She brought that vision to HANDS, as a forty-year anchor institution in New Jersey with the development experience and community trust to bring it to life. Jackson, New Hampshire, is where the idea was born. Essex County, New Jersey, is where HANDS has spent four decades doing exactly this kind of work. Together, they make LOLH the first initiative of its kind: urban and rural, designed to be replicable, and rooted in the experiences of real women who had nowhere left to turn.