From left, Michelle Flood, Maria Walker and Inali Dreyer with Harry Styles in New Rochelle, N.Y., where the three women searched for a new home they could share. Emon Hassan for The New York Times

When Maria Walker moved to New York from Ecuador in 1962, she had never allowed herself to dream that she could own a home in the United States. So a few years later, when she and her then-husband bought a two-bedroom house on Staten Island for $28,000, she excitedly took on most of the work — painting it, fixing the floors, even building the cabinets.