Unfortunately the homeowner must sell the house at the end of the period and move out. Therefore this type of loan is an absolute last ditch method and government counseling offices will usually try to find some other type of assistance. Many of these loans are insured, meaning that if the loan should exceed the property value at the end of the term, they will not access other property for payment. There are also up front fees, points and the like, so these can be fairly expensive to implement and costly overall. Monies are available as a lump sum, lines of credit and monthly payments as long as the borrower lives in the house.
Some companies also offer payments for life.
They simply do this by buying a life annuity. The monthly payment depends on the borrowers age, sex, marital status, the amount of equity in the home, interest to be charged, ratio of loan to homes value, origination, projected appreciation of the home, actuarial lifetime used for annuitization and other factors as well. They are certainly not cheap, easy to understand or to utilize. Members of this group could be found in all regions in roughly the same demographics. Lenders have not been particularly receptive to granting reverse mortgages since they have an extended risk of not being paid till some unknown time in the future.