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I see an emerging Canadian real estate trend mirroring that of the U.S. – millennials and seniors, the most unlikely roommates, are now increasingly sharing a home together. The Globe and Mail recently reported that with the rise of Canada’s rents while the vacancy rate shrinks, a growing number of seniors are living in homes too big, while young Canadians squeeze into apartments too expensive. The concept of home sharing – where the homeowner, usually a senior, offers reduced rent for a room in their home in exchange for small chores and companionship – is getting attention in small towns and cities across the country, including a new pilot project in Toronto this summer.
The publication reported that this month, Boston expanded the use of a new housing app called Nesterly – co-developed by a MIT-grad and billed as a socially-conscious solution to both loneliness and soaring housing costs – which creates home-sharing matches between seniors and cash-strapped university students. Sometimes, it’s not only students who are in a financial bind. In January this year, The New York Times reported that many older Americans, who discovered that their savings had dwindled, were looking for millennials to share their homes and split the utilities and the rent equally. For many baby boomers entering retirement, financial security is also increasingly hard to come by. Many North Americans have not saved enough to maintain their pre-retirement living standards. Increased life expectancy and lower interest rates only exacerbate the situation.
In addition to apps like Nesterly, non-profit organizations, such as the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, have been operating a home-sharing service since 1981, matching people who have space in their homes with those in need of affordable housing. It is one of a number of similar programs that have emerged across the country as the population of older Americans grows, as a way to help people stay in their homes.
Similarly, across Canada, affordable-housing advocates have proposed home sharing as a creative option for communities trying to balance a rapidly aging population and a shortage of affordable, long-term rental properties. The most successful home-sharing programs involve a step-by-step process that carefully matches homeowners and tenants, requiring funding for trained facilitators. Whether we like it or not, many Canadian trends follow those of our southern neighbours. A lot of these new projects are modelling themselves after a non-profit organization in Vermont, now more than 30 years old, where matched candidates meet, have trial stays and, if both agree, sign a clear contract that outlines expectations and rules while they live together.
Nesterly, which started as a pilot with the city of Boston last year, focused on university students and expanded in July to include the entire city population, works like a dating app, allowing potential tenants to post confidential profiles that can be matched to homeowners. The team at the Boston app also conducts criminal-record checks and follows up on references, then allows homeowners to choose from a number of matches. In its pilot year, the program made 10 matches – there are now another 50 active “hosts” on the platforms with thousands of home seekers to choose from.
Nesterly staff also help facilitate interviews and finalize detailed home-sharing contracts and even collect the rent on behalf of the homeowner, while taking a small percentage, and a fee for offering continuing support. Millennials chosen by seniors homeowners often help with snow shovelling, walking the dog, gardening, the occasional shelf-hanging, or chatting to the seniors about any topics of shared interest.
For the older homeowners, having younger company is also potentially a lifesaver. Seniors have a tendency to fall at home and could be assisted by their younger roommates or tenants when such accidents occur. In return for the physical labour provided by the millennials, some older homeowners leave homemade meals for them on the table by the front door.
According to a 2017 study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis, Ontario alone has five million spare bedrooms and three-quarters of the province’s seniors live in houses too large for their needs. Home sharing may not solve Canada’s housing woes, but advocates say it’s an example of how more solutions should go beyond windows and walls.
I’m also glad to see that a provincially-funded pilot project for Toronto will begin this summer – an initiative undertaken by the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly at the University of Toronto. Tonya Salomans, a social worker who is coordinating this project, sees home sharing as an option for generations to mingle and learn from one another, to improve the health of isolated seniors, while helping young people cover rent. The goal is to match 20 seniors with university students and then follow how well the living arrangements work.
Outside Ontario, this fall, a group of housing advocates in Nova Scotia plan to tour communities promoting options such as home sharing. The Globe also reported that a Burlington entrepreneur has started the Homeshare Alliance, a business that matches people and guides them through the contract stage for a fee.
Of course, home sharing is not for everyone. Seniors have to be flexible (a rare quality to have when you’re aging), enjoy people and set clear rules from the beginning. For those who are willing to give this creative solution a try, home sharing may be the best way to integrate the young and old in society.
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