Connection and Compatibility: The Key to Home Sharing.
Who might you enjoy sharing a home with, and what could make the arrangement work for both of you? Ideas for finding a compatible match, and home sharing through community partners.
Ways to Find a Compatible Match
10 guides
Neither person is the solution to the other's problem. Each has something the other may value.
When the Home Seeker Is Your Own Age
More older adults are looking for a room they can afford. Here is how sharing a home with someone near your own age can work for both people.
A careful matching process means the person is no longer completely unknown by move-in day.
The Golden Girls Model, in Real Life
Many older women say they would consider living with a friend, but few would live with someone they do not know. How peer home sharing works in real life.
Some people eventually miss having another person in the house. Others value living alone. Neither response is wrong.
After the Casseroles Stop
After a spouse dies, some people come to miss having another person in the house, and others value living alone. If you are curious, here is how home sharing can work.
Neither person needs the other to be anything more than a considerate person to live with.
A Steady Place to Land: Intergenerational Home Sharing
Some older homeowners share a spare room with a student or young adult. What intergenerational home sharing can look like and what makes it work for both people.
A shared language can reduce friction, increase comfort, and make a household feel like home for both people.
Speaking the Same Language at the Kitchen Table
Sharing a language with the person you live with can make a household feel like home for both of you. Here is how to look for a match with language in mind.
Shared identity is one possible basis for compatibility, not an obligation.
Aging Out Loud, at Home
For some LGBTQ+ older adults, the key question about sharing a home is whether they can be fully themselves in it. Here is how to look for an affirming match.
This is not about rescue. It is about two adults, each with something to offer, working out a household that fits both of them.
Service to Service
For some veterans, shared military experience is a good starting point for a home share. Here is how veterans can find a compatible match, with the right partners.
Your faith community brings the trust. A home sharing program brings the process. The two of you decide the rest.
Your Faith Community May Already Know Who Needs a Room
A faith community can be a trusted place to learn about home sharing. How congregations and programs can work together, and what to know first.
Shared interests can be a good place to start. Mentorship might develop naturally, but it is not part of the bargain.
Shared Work, Shared Interests
A shared trade, field, or passion can be a good starting point for a home share. How to look for common ground, and why mentoring is never part of the rent.
A shared love of animals or land can be a good place to start. The details still belong in writing.
Room for One More (and Their Dog)
A love of animals or land can be common ground for a home share. How pets and rural property can fit a match, with the details in writing.
Home Sharing Through Community Partnerships
6 guides
This is about housing, not care. A room near the hospital is the offer. Your care is arranged separately.
Housing the People Who Care for Us
Through a partner program, a spare room near a hospital can be housing for a health worker. It is housing, not care. What to know before you start.
Each is an adult entering a housing arrangement with support around it.
Leaving Foster Care: Home Sharing Through a Youth Partner
Some youth organizations match young adults leaving foster care with a room in a shared home. How these partnerships work and what to ask first.
The partner handles reentry. The two of you handle the ordinary business of sharing a home.
Coming Home: Sharing Housing After Incarceration
How a reentry partner can match a home provider with someone coming home from prison, what the evidence does and does not show, and what to ask first.
An ordinary home share is not a recovery residence. It can still be a calm, substance-free household that suits two people.
Home Sharing in Long-Term Recovery
Some older adults in recovery want a substance-free shared home. What the evidence on recovery housing shows, how a home share differs, and what to plan first.
Neither one is the other's caregiver. They are two people who share a home, on terms they both agreed to.
Disability, Independence, and a Shared Home
Home providers and home seekers with disabilities can share a home on equal terms. How it can work, where a partner agency fits, and what to ask first.
For some households, sharing across generations can create housing that works for everyone involved.
Two Generations Moving In
Some grandparents raising grandchildren need more room, and some older homeowners have it. Why these matches are complex, and what to ask a kinship partner first.