How matchmaking can address two housing needs

When children grow up and move out, their bedrooms often get a second life as a workout room, a craft space or an office. But empty nesters are also growing older, and soon enough those extra rooms—along with the rest of the house—can become, at best, underused, and at worst, a burden to maintain for those who want to age at home. 

But what if those extra rooms could see a third life as an affordable housing option? That’s a question cities and states are exploring by implementing home-sharing programs that match older homeowners with people looking for an affordable housing option. 

In these programs, renters pay reduced rent in exchange for a certain number of hours spent helping older homeowners. The model also brings some companionship into households at a time when 1 in 3 older adults report feeling isolated. 

In Maine, the state housing authority and its partners are rolling out a new home-sharing program. At the last Census count, Maine had the largest share of older adults compared to other states; about 20% of the population is over 65. Living alone as an older adult comes with inherent challenges, even beyond shoveling snow during New England winters or long commutes to rural doctor appointments. Everyday tasks like cleaning the house, grocery shopping and cooking become challenging with age.

But “people want to live in their houses,” said Erik Jorgensen, senior director of government relations and communications at MaineHousing, the state's housing authority. 

A 2022 survey found that nearly 90% of adults between the ages of 50 and 80 want to age in their homes. In about 10 years, when one-third of households will be headed by someone over the age of 65, the number of people looking to age at home is likely to increase.

Many older homeowners, however, “have more house than they can use,” said Jorgensen. 

That and the fact that, like many other places, there aren’t enough homes in Maine to meet demand spurred the Maine Legislature to act. A report commissioned by MaineHousing projected an 84,000 home shortfall by 2030. In an effort to generate more options for renters, the state legislature approved last year a bill requiring the housing authority to explore potential partnerships with companies to match empty nesters and retirees with young adults seeking housing. 

Earlier this year, MaineHousing signed a $200,000 contract with the home-sharing platform Nesterly to create a statewide program matching homeseekers with home providers who offer reduced rent in exchange for companionship and help with household chores. Hosts and prospective tenants submit applications and undergo thorough background checks before they are paired based on needs and compatibility. In addition to facilitating matchmaking and writing up a formal agreement, Nesterly employees check in with the host and tenant monthly for the duration of the agreement to ensure both parties are still satisfied with the living situation. 

Those safety measures were important in MaineHousing’s decision to pursue the partnership, Jorgensen said. “We're really concerned about making sure that if the state is going to be involved in this, that it needs to be as well thought out in terms of guardrails as possible.”

The first Maine hosts are now listed on the Nesterly website, and homeseekers will soon be able to submit their applications to be matched. 

Contracts must be for at least one month, although the average Nesterly agreement lasts about nine months, according to founder Noelle Marcus. Homesharing, she says, is a practical option for people like traveling nurses, AmeriCorps participants and students. And while some older adults may be wary of that transiency, Marcus says that many find it appealing. For those who have been in their homes a long time and have a strong sense of ownership over their space, a months-long agreement may be more digestible than a long-term commitment.

Nesterly already facilitates home-sharing in Boston; Central Ohio; Framingham, Massachusetts; and Louisville, Kentucky. But Maine will be its first statewide program, and MaineHousing is coordinating with AARP Maine, the Maine Council on Aging and the Governor’s Cabinet on Aging to roll it out. 

“I don't think it’s necessarily going to solve our housing problem,” Jorgensen said, but it does provide a new affordable housing option for renters.

While home-sharing is far from a new concept—throughout much of history multigenerational households were the norm—formal programs like Maine’s are relatively new, according to Samara Scheckler, a senior research associate for Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. There’s limited research on formal home-sharing programs, especially in the U.S. where they began popping up in the 1970s, but a handful of studies have illustrated a slew of benefits that the programs provide, including feeling less isolated and lonely, feeling safer at home, sleeping better, experiencing less anxiety and developing healthier eating habits. 

With a housemate paying rent, there are financial benefits, too—but those aren’t the primary appeal of the program. 

“Interestingly, in these studies that have been done [in the U.S. and other countries], the financial benefits are often mentioned last by the home provider,” Scheckler said. 

Home-sharing programs are difficult to scale in part because it’s challenging to identify funding sources, Scheckler said. While it’s unclear whether the Maine Legislature will approve long-term funding for a home-sharing program, at least one other state has made it work.

Pennsylvania’s Shared Housing and Resource Exchange, or SHARE, has been a housing matchmaker since 2017 with the support of grants from the Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services, said Margo Muchinsky, an aging services specialist with the state’s Division of Housing and Community. The program is similar to Nesterly’s but relies on volunteers to serve as housing counselors. It has paired hundreds of people with housing agreements that last anywhere from a few months to a few years. 

“There’s such a critical need for housing and this has been a great affordable housing option,” Muchinsky said, adding that she is “extremely optimistic” about the future of the program and expects it to grow to include more counties throughout the state. 

Marcus hopes the home-sharing model will push people to think more broadly about what housing solutions can look like. The country needs to build more housing, but it should also consider how underutilized spaces can play into the solution. 

Benefits of home-sharing go beyond the participating households, Marcus continued, describing the model as an “anti-gentrification tool” that can help build more resilient communities.  

“How are we helping people who've been in their communities for a long time be able to remain in those communities? … How do we stay interconnected with people around us in proximity to us?” she asked. “This is one way to do that. There's a lot of strength in having social relationships and being connected with community.”