If you don't have enough income to need to file an income tax return (considering this time frame included years of stimulus moneys as well as refundable credits) and unless you anticipate someone dying any day now, over those three years, how likely is it a person takes a reverse mortgage to live on? Because if it was only for improvements, a HELOC avoids the fees incurred when using reverse mortgage. But reverse mortgage is a tactic for covering living expenses. I'm just pointing out that the story as presented doesn't meet the strategy being proposed.