Talk to anyone who funds aging programs and you will hear the same two crises named in nearly every conversation. The first is housing. Older adults are being pushed out of homes they have lived in for decades because the costs around the home, taxes, insurance, utilities, medication, have outrun their fixed incomes. The second is isolation. Loneliness in older adults is a measurable health risk, comparable in mortality impact to smoking. The two crises do not just sit beside each other. They feed each other.

Most of the field tries to solve them separately. Affordable housing programs build new units. Senior connection programs run support groups, dinners, transportation to events. Both are good. Neither is fast. Neither is cheap. Neither, alone, restores the daily, low-stakes companionship of having someone in the next room.

The economics of home sharing versus construction

Home sharing addresses both crises with one intervention, at a small fraction of the cost of new construction. The reason is that the housing already exists. There are an estimated 44 million empty bedrooms across the United States, sitting in homes owned by people who would prefer to age in place if it were affordable to do so. The work of home sharing is not to build supply. The work is to make the supply that already exists safe, vetted, and reachable.

Per match, home sharing keeps a home provider stable, brings a home seeker into safe affordable housing, and creates a daily companionship relationship that no support group meeting can replicate. Each participant pays $125 to HomeShare Online, which covers identity verification, a 6 month background check, 6 months of platform access, and a refundable $50 deposit. Donor support underwrites the technology infrastructure and accessibility subsidies that keep the participant cost at $125 rather than three or four times that. Compare the all in cost to the cost of building or subsidizing a single new unit of senior housing, which runs to the hundreds of thousands of dollars and takes years.

Why nonprofit infrastructure beats private platforms

A reasonable question from any funder is whether a private market solution can do this work. The answer is no, and not because private platforms are bad, but because the problem is not what they are built to solve. Private home sharing platforms optimize for transaction volume and short stays. They do not vet for values. They are not accountable to a community. They charge a commercial markup. HomeShare Online does not.

HomeShare Online is the only nonprofit home sharing technology platform in the country. It is owned and operated by HomeShare Oregon, a 501(c)(3) (EIN 86-3754964). Because we are nonprofit, our incentive is the right match, not the most matches. Our staff is funded to take time. The platform was purpose built for aging in place, social isolation, and housing displacement, in that order, not as a side feature.

The proof is already here

More than 80,000 people have joined the platform since launch, with over 17,000 active users today. In Oregon, 6,691 people have used HomeShare Online to find a housemate since 2021. Of those who reported matching, 80% were still stably sharing a home 6 months later, with average rent savings of $700 below market rates. The City of Portland selected HomeShare Oregon as the partner for its home sharing pilot, the first municipal partnership of its kind. Donors who funded this organization in its early years did so before most of the field caught up. The track record is now visible enough that no one giving today is taking a leap of faith. They are joining a movement that is already working.

Where your gift actually goes

HomeShare Online charges each participant $125 to cover third party identity verification, a comprehensive 6 month background check, 6 months of platform access, and a refundable $50 deposit. That fee structure is designed to be transparent and to keep the cost of safety in line with the cost of running it. Donor support sits on top of those participant fees. It funds the things participant fees cannot: the technology infrastructure that keeps the participant fee at $125 instead of three or four times that, the outreach and partnerships that bring new home providers into the program, and the accessibility subsidies that ensure lower income home providers are not priced out of the very program they need most.

Home sharing is among the most cost effective housing interventions available. Every gift channels generosity into the financial and emotional security of people who want to stay home.

Make a gift

Visit homeshareoregon.org/give to support the work. For larger commitments or program restricted gifts, email info@homeshareoregon.org and we will follow up to schedule a conversation.