College students live in Cleveland retirement community in exchange for music

A few of the residents at Judson Manor retirement community in Cleveland, Ohio, aren’t quite retirement age yet.

Among the nearly 100 senior residents are a handful of young students from the Cleveland Institute of Music who live there rent-free in exchange for monthly musical performances.

Melissa Plank, 24, is one of them.

"I live here with my peeps, as I call them, my neighbours," Plank, who has a one-bedroom apartment on the 10th floor of the manor, told CBS News. “I’m really just not looking forward to graduating because I have to leave. I mean it’s literally the best way to live.”

"It became more like a family than a job," she added. “Yeah, they’re all my grandparents.”

The residents at Judson Manor told CBS News that, despite initial concerns about college students’ lifestyles, the pairing of students and seniors has been a great one.

Outside of monthly concerts and daily meals, the students and seniors frequently have coffee together, sharing books, movies, music — and advice.

"It’s gotten to the point where I seek relational advice from them because they have the wisdom of 40 years of marriage," said piano student Mary Vanhoozer.

"Those young people do a lot for us. They bring us alive," said one resident.

"It gives us joy. My gosh, it’s lovely," 93-year-old Clara Catliota told Cleveland.com. Catliota developed a strong bond with violinist Caitlin Lynch, one of the first students to move into the building.

"We’ve all had wonderful children and they’re gone now. Children grow up and go to school and they are gone. Mine are spread out all over. But to live with young people and learn from them. It’s a whole new dimension to life."

When she couldn’t make it to Lynch’s wedding in Oregon, Catliota organized a post-wedding celebration for the newlyweds at Judson Manor this October.

"It is a wonderful deal for us," Lynch said of her living arrangement in 2010. “For me it is more important that these people here honestly and truly have become my family. The residents are incredible.”