About the Founder – Dorothy Mazeau

Drawing on more than 40 years of experience of living in shared homes, Dorothy Mazeau has poured her enthusiasm for this lifestyle into founding Golden HomeSharing Connections as a way to help others learn about the benefits of home-sharing and find compatible home-mates.  She sees the potential for home-sharing to become the “AirBNB” of affordable housing. 

Originally from Massachusetts, Dorothy earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Rhode Island School of Design. Following several years of practicing her profession in Boston, she moved with her husband and infant son to Ontario in 1974, where she continued in the practice of architecture until 2004.  During her years of practice she was involved in the design and construction of several seniors’ residences and served on the Board of Directors for the Unionville Home Society, a non-profit organization which included in its portfolio a retirement home (opened in 1967), a life-lease apartment building and a community of rental bungalows for seniors, all of which were unique in their time.  During her tenure on the Board plans for a state-of-the-art long term care facility were underway. 

In the 1990’s, Dorothy became an advocate for the cohousing movement, serving on the Board of Directors for both the Cohousing Association of the United States and the Canadian Cohousing Network.  She served as editor of the CCN newsletter for several years in the early 2000s and organized a number of workshops on the development of cohousing communities in Ontario. 

In 2004 Dorothy left the architectural profession to become a full-time Realtor, specializing in working with older adults. She saw the need for a wider range of living options for her clients, as they enter this third stage of their lives. At the same time, she realized that the long and expensive process of developing a cohousing community puts this way of finding community beyond the reach of many, especially seniors, who would benefit greatly from having more community on their lives. 

Having lived primarily in shared homes for so many years, both as a single mother and on into her senior years, Dorothy realized that she was living the answer to the issue facing so many and has devoted herself to promoting shared housing as an affordable, viable and enjoyable way to live. 

Through Golden HomeSharing Connections she has reached out to find others who share her passion for home-sharing and met Annamarie Pluhar, author of the book Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates.  Dorothy has since become a member of the Board of Directors for Sharing Housing Inc. a charitable organization founded by Annamarie, that promotes shared housing across North America. As well as the material available on the Golden HomeSharing Connections Website, a link is provided to the publications and workshops available through Sharing Housing Inc.