This article is a result of a qualitative research conducted with low-income elderlies who work informally on the streets of Belo Horizonte. Material scarcity leads them to a recurrent practice, the cohabitation. This strategy used to diminish the poverty impact also establishes intergenerational exchanges. On the one hand, there is a conflict due to intensive companionship among generations; on the other hand, there is sympathy and mutual help from the family. The elderly workers play a central economic role in the life of their families, in which youths are unemployed or underemployed, and, as home providers, elder people maintain the power of negotiation with the generations that live with them.
elderly people; job; family; intergenerational relationships