I found this quote from a NY Times article (July 16, 2008) about HomeShare. In it Kirby Dunn, director of HomeShare Vermont is quoted as saying, “When you look at the data on people living alone, they tend to die younger and be sicker. We’ve done surveys, and people say they’re happier, sleeping and eating better and feel safer in their homes with someone around. If I sold you that as a drug, you’d pay thousands.”

Isn’t that the truth? So why aren’t more seniors sharing housing?

There are programs that take on responsibility for matching householders with home seekers. In general these programs are non profit social service programs focusing on people in need for reasons of age, disability or low-income.

The National Shared Housing Resource Center provides a directory of programs in states, updated in March of 2009. A casual count suggests that there are less than 50 programs throughout the country. There is no indication of how effective they are.

Problem is that it takes an enormous amount of energy to make a very few matches. I’m thinking that it ought to be possible for householders and home seekers to find each other through an internet matching service. Most people I suggest this to shudder in horror. Seems to me that the element of personal selection would add greatly to the willingness of householders and home seekers to participate in a homeshare program.

What do you think?

“The time has come!” declared Malcolm Johnson, Chairman of Homeshare International, in his welcome and introductions to delegates at the First International HomeShare Congress. In a world with a growing elderly population living alone, and with housing prices trending higher, it simply makes sense to match older householders with younger renters who can offer help with daily tasks in exchange for housing.

Delegates to the congress came from England, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Australia. All are working on developing homeshare programs, but the programs are quite different. Some are only to help elderly and disabled. Other programs are open to matching people of all ages. One program in the United States works specifically to help the homeless find housing. Some programs are for profit, but most are not for profit. Some are funded by the government. In Australia, this year, for the first time, the Victorian State budget has funds to support homeshare programs. In France and in Germany, steps toward homeshare funding by government entities are being taken.

A common theme was the difficulty of making good matches. It takes time and effort. The older generation is not used to the idea of sharing their home, hence there are often fewer householders offering housing in exchange for help than there are younger people interested in living rent-free. It may be that the baby boomer generation will be more open to the idea of homeshare than the World War II generation is. Questions were raised about how to market homeshare and whether it would be better to have homeshare matching be more like a dating service (Harmony.com?) than the very personal and time-intensive matching system used by most of the agencies.

Delegates told stories of relationships between the householder and the caregiver in which both people were changed by their relationship “ their worlds made richer by the reciprocity of giving inherent in the homeshare arrangement.

Despite the difficulties cited, the delegates are committed to the concept of homeshare. It is a simple idea that the world needs.

Here’s an article in the NY Times about sharing housing.

This is about a program run by the NY Foundation for Senior Citizens in New York City that help seniors connect with one another. What a great idea!

NPR (National Public Radio) discusses the growth of home sharing arrangements in the US. This three-minute piece describes the Vermont HomeShare program and the success of two different arrangements.