Housing swaps.

Re: "Unable to downsize, more seniors are living in larger homes with empty bedrooms," July 5.

A certain non-zero percentage of overhoused seniors might be willing to swap dwellings with underhoused young working families if they are able to find each other, which a web-based housing exchange could accomplish easily.

A young family would continue paying the rent on the apartment they inhabit and are swapping with a senior household. This would include paying all rent increases and other levies demanded by the holder of the apartment, as well as assuming financial responsibility tor maintaining the seniors' home in exchange for occupying it.

Whoever runs the exchange, preferably a not-for profit organization with access to confidential databases provided by the province and Ottawa to avoid sloppy vetting and profit-motivated corner cutting, would thoroughly vet the family for solvency, trustworthiness, reliability, and honesty, all admittedly in short supply in these days of rampant financial predation.

This scheme would undoubtedly not alleviate the problem of overhoused seniors on a mass scale, but a certain number of responsible families might find adequate housing by swapping their ridiculously overpriced apartments with seniors wishing to move closer to medical services or remote family members, assuming there are still functioning medical facilities in areas to which there are opportunities for them to relocate.

You don't correct decades of financialized destruction of an economy overnight, but some fortunate young families might be saved from the derivatives casino cauldron by swapping dwellings with overhoused seniors.