What Home Sharing Actually Looks Like.
And Why It Is Not Airbnb.

When most people hear "share my home," they think of weekend guests, suitcases by the door, and a stream of strangers cycling through. That is short term rental. That is not what we do.

Home sharing is long term. The match between a home provider and a home seeker is meant to last at least a year, often much longer. There is one housemate, not a parade. The two of you choose each other after a vetting process, and you live together with respect and clear expectations. The arrangement is closer to having a roommate in your twenties than running a hospitality business in your seventies.

The platform that does the work

HomeShare Online is the technology platform that powers the match. We are owned and operated by HomeShare Oregon, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We are the only nonprofit home sharing platform in the country built to scale this work.

Because we are a nonprofit, the platform is not optimizing for clicks or commissions. Our goal is the right match, the first time. The platform does the heavy lifting that is not safe to do on your own: identity verification, background checks, application screening, and a values based match process. You get to the meeting already knowing the candidate has cleared the steps that should be cleared first.

Three steps from interest to housemate

Step one. You apply at info.homeshareonline.org/hso. The form takes a few minutes. You tell the platform about your home, your routines, and what you are looking for in a housemate.

Step two. The platform reviews your information and surfaces vetted home seekers it identifies as a strong match. You read their profiles. You decide who you would like to meet. You meet, in person or on a video call. You talk about the things that matter.

Step three. If the values match, you sign the home sharing lease template the platform provides, and your housemate moves in. The relationship from there is yours to run, with the structure and standards the platform has already put in place.

What the first ninety days actually feel like

The first weeks of any home sharing arrangement are the ones people ask about most often. Here is what they look like in practice. The two of you settle into routines. You learn each other's mornings. There is usually one small thing you have to talk about in the first month, a noise question or a kitchen question or a guest question, and you handle it the way you would with any housemate, with the help of the lease and house guidelines you set together. By the second month, the awkwardness fades and a real rhythm sets in. By the third, most home providers say they cannot remember what the house felt like before.

None of this is improvised. The home sharing field has been doing this work for decades. The platform is built on top of those decades of practice. The first ninety days are designed to be predictable so a good match becomes a stable match.

What it costs

HomeShare Online charges $125 per participant. That single fee covers third party identity verification, a comprehensive 6 month background check, 6 months of access to the matching platform and resources, and a refundable $50 deposit. The deposit is refunded when you are matched with a housemate or when you decide to leave the platform. Partner organizations sometimes offer discount codes to their members, so if you came to HomeShare Online through a referral from a faith community, senior center, or neighborhood organization, ask whether a code is available.

The City of Portland pilot

The City of Portland selected HomeShare Oregon as the partner for its home sharing pilot. That selection tells you our work has been examined, vetted, and chosen by people whose job is to be careful with public trust. The fee structure above reflects the same nonprofit philosophy. Home providers and seekers pay the actual costs of safety and infrastructure, and there is no commercial markup on top of that.

Get started in minutes

Visit info.homeshareonline.org/hso to apply. Affordable. Vetted. Backed by the City of Portland. Powered by a nonprofit platform built to take your trust as seriously as you do.