July/August 2009
In this Issue
Congress Acts to Boost Confidence, Stability in Housing Market
Home Sharing Makes Housing Affordable
Affordable Housing Revives Historic Neighborhood
Making Fair Housing a Reality
In the next issue of ResearchWorks
Home Sharing Makes Housing Affordable
The low-profile practice of home sharing has sparked increased media attention in recent months, indicating a growing demand during a period of economic decline, rising foreclosure rates, and a shortage of affordable housing. Home sharing appeared as a formal component of social service programs in the 1970s, offering matching services for unrelated individuals wishing to share a home. Today, there are about 100 known matching programs in the United States.1
Home sharing is not confined to any age, gender, or ethnic group; it meets the needs of single parents, disabled persons, widowed or divorced individuals, college students, foreign visitors, and even business travelers. According to a recent survey of programs across the country conducted by the Shared Housing Center (SHC) in Dallas, Texas, 7 of 10 home seekers have low incomes.2 The appeal for these home seekers lies in access to affordable housing with the added benefits of a home environment, a sense of safety and privacy, and the social connection that a housemate provides.
The SHC survey found that 75 percent of home providers were women, many of whom own their homes but live on a fixed income at or below poverty level. Elderly homeowners in particular find that renting to a compatible housemate can be a highly satisfactory arrangement that makes fixed incomes go further and allows them to age in place, avoid isolation, enjoy companionship, and secure some assistance with home maintenance chores.3
Homeshare International (http://homeshare.org) reports that the United States has the most diverse types of arrangements among housemates. Terms might include cash rent, reduced rent for services, or free rent-service exchanges. Services in lieu of rent often include home maintenance, grocery shopping, personal care, transportation, and housekeeping chores. A written contract specifies how the home sharing arrangement will meet the needs and interests of both parties. The director of the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, Linda Hoffman, recently compared this agreement to a "pre-nup, specifying such things as smoking policy, the amount the guest will pay as a household contribution, whether they can have overnight or other visitors, who is responsible for keeping the place clean and sanitary, and the amount of notice needed to undo the arrangement. If the guest is expected to help with chores, from taking out the garbage, to making small repairs, to shopping, that's also spelled out."4 Although the sums involved are below market rate — home share rents in Dallas, for example, range between $250–$400 compared with the fair market rental rate of $678 — the financial relief to both parties is significant.
Program operators report that skillful screening is the key to successful matches.5 Hoffman, whose organization uses a computer program to match potential housemates on 31 different variables, reiterates the importance of prescreening. Face-to-face meetings and careful reviews by social workers are also necessary, says Hoffman. HomeShare Vermont reports that screening and matching is very labor intensive. After reviewing applications, the staff conducts interviews, home visits, criminal and abuse registry checks, three reference checks, trial matches, contract-writing sessions, and follow up services.6
Organizations that provide matching services between home providers and seekers come in many sizes and shapes. SHC’s survey found large agencies that offer free matching as just one of an array of services, whereas other nonprofit home share programs stand alone as 501(c)(3) entities. Many request donations, charge nominal fees, or pursue grant funding. Most have small budgets and rely on a combination of volunteers, paraprofessionals, and one or two paid professionals. On average, these organizations make from 25 to 750 matches a year. After matching home seekers with providers, some agencies offer conflict resolution services and support to housemates.
Measuring Success
Home sharing program success is measured in different ways — by the number of matches, match longevity, and housing cost savings. SHC's Dallas Homeshare program does all three. The Dallas Homeshare program is credited with 4,000 matches over its 20-year history. More than half of the matches made are now 2 to 7 years old, with another 20 percent lasting from 8 to 11 years.
Having served more than 8,000 home seekers and providers, Dallas Homeshare also considers its success in economic terms. Successful matches have saved homes, kept properties on the tax rolls, and pumped $4.7 million into the local economy. There are savings to the public coffers as well. Dallas Homeshare files show that more than 85 percent of their clients have never used the welfare system, nor do they require rental assistance that would be based on fair market rents (which run 60 percent higher than the average home share rental rate in Dallas).
Finally, if self-reports of satisfaction with home sharing expressed by housemates across the country can also be viewed as a measure of success, then home sharing results in happier, healthier, more independent individuals who are civic and economic assets to their communities. Home sharing is therefore not merely a viable affordable housing option, but an attractive one with secondary benefits to the entire community.
1 National Shared Housing Resource Center, www.nationalsharedhousing.org.
2 Shared Housing Center, "Homeshare's Impact & Contribution to the Community, 1984–2004." Inquiries about this 2005 report can be sent to info@sharedhousing.org.
3 Deborah E. Altus and R. Mark Mathews, "Examining Satisfaction of Older Home Owners With Intergenerational Homesharing," Journal of Clinical Geropsychology 6:2, 139–47.
4 Eleanor J. Bader, "City Home Sharing Program Promotes Aging in Place," The Brooklyn Rail, May 2009, www.brooklynrail.org/2009/05/local/city-home-sharing-program-promotes-aging-in-place.
5 Barbara Basler, "Home Sharing Is Helping Retirees Save," AARP Bulletin Today, 19 September 2008, http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/yourhome/articles/home_sharing_is_helping_retirees_save.html.
6 HomeShare Vermont, "Annual Report 2008," www.HomeShareVermont.org.
