If we’re being cynical here, which—let’s be honest, we are—it’s worth pointing out that roommates are a relationship of convenience, convenience of a primarily financial nature.
Unless it’s your partner or someone you really want to live with for some reason, there’s really no other reason to be living with people, even if (and sometimes especially if) that person is a close friend.
By the time your roommate situation becomes a charity one, you’re probably wondering what the heck the point of it is anyway. Things happen, people lose their jobs, and you might end up in a situation where you’re covering more or less of the expenses for someone close to you, but everything should be discussed and above board.
This, of course, isn’t accounting for situations where you’re intentionally trying to help out a friend or family member by putting them up and giving them a place to stay, but that’s not really a roommate situation at all and would be organized from the outset with that intention in mind. Even still in this case and any others, when you’re helping someone out financially, you’re going to be upset when you see them unpacking expensive new fancy things while you’ve been going out of your way to help them financially, and your own money has been covering their expenses for them.
Everyone has a different understanding of what “broke” means, and I’m sure a lot of us can share the experience of having bought drinks or meals for our friends who are happy to let you do so and claim to have “No spending money” only to learn that they have a sizeable savings account (or even a trust fund) that they’ve been less than honest about.
And, in this specific scenario, it’s not even like these roommates are young frys anymore, they’re big fish who are already out there in the world and need to be more responsible than this.
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