Your Faith Community May Already Know Who Needs a Room

Here is an example. In some faith communities, news travels over a shared meal: a young music teacher is sleeping on a friend's couch, or a member's rent is about to go up again. Sometimes an older adult with an empty bedroom hears that and thinks, "I have space."

If your faith is meaningful to you, home sharing can be one way to put what it asks of you into practice, whether your tradition speaks of hospitality, welcoming the stranger, or caring for a neighbor. It is also a practical housing arrangement between two adults. Neither person is the solution to the other's problem. The home provider has a room and may want company or help with costs. The home seeker needs a place to live and brings their own rent, routines, skills, and company.

A shared faith community is one possible starting point for a good match. It is not an obligation. Some people would rather keep their faith life and their housing separate, and that is a fine answer.

Why this matters

Faith communities bring people of different ages and incomes together regularly. In the Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study, 78% of adults 65 and older identify as Christian¹, and older adults also belong to Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and other communities. Hearing about home sharing from people you already know may make it more comfortable to ask a first question.

What it can look like

• Associated Ministries in Tacoma, Washington, is an interfaith organization that matches people through interviews, background checks, and attention to lifestyle compatibility.
• Faith Partners 4 Housing in Clark County, Washington, runs a home share program with identity verification and background checks built into the application.
• St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center in Baltimore, founded in 1968 with Catholic roots, typically arranges 50 to 60 matches a year. Home providers keep the final say about who shares their home.
• JFS MetroWest in Massachusetts pairs home providers 60 and older with people facing housing insecurity.

Here is an illustrative example, a composite and not real people. A retired nurse in her 70s has sung in her congregation's choir for 30 years. Her faith leader invites a local home sharing program to hold an information night. She applies through the program, not the congregation. After interviews, background and reference checks, and two meetings, she is matched with a hospital unit clerk. He pays a modest rent, keeps his own schedule, and sometimes drives them both to choir practice on icy nights. The congregation made the introduction. The program handled the process. The two of them decided the rest.

What to know first

Your faith community brings the trust. A home sharing program brings the process. The clearest model divides the work: the faith community holds an information night and spreads the word, and a home sharing program handles applications, background checks, compatibility conversations, and the written agreement. Faith leaders can share information without recommending a particular person or encouraging anyone to say yes.

Familiar is not the same as checked. Seeing someone at worship every week is not a background check. A careful matching process means the person is no longer completely unknown by move-in day, through identity verification, references, meetings, compatibility conversations, and a written agreement. Those steps matter for someone you have known for years, too. Any person you share a home with could create problems with money or privacy, and a close community can make it harder to say no.

Talk with a fair housing expert before you describe who you hope to live with. Wanting to live with someone who shares your faith can raise fair housing questions, and a preference is not necessarily lawful just because it is shared privately rather than in a listing. Before you describe the person you hope to share with, read our post "Choosing who lives with you, fairly" and talk with your program or a local fair housing organization. Describing your home and household, such as "quiet home, no smoking, cat in residence," is still good practice, though it does not settle the legal question on its own.

Home sharing is housing. It is not caregiving, case management, counseling, or treatment. Trading help around the house for lower rent, or paying someone for help, can create employment, tax, and insurance obligations whether or not anyone intended it, so get advice before either of you agrees to it.

How to get started

1. Talk with your faith leaders or lay leaders. Ask whether your community would hold an information night with a local home sharing program.
2. Find a program. Call the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116 and ask about home sharing programs near you.
3. Ask the program good questions. How do you check identity and references? What happens if a match is not working? Do you check in after move-in?
4. Ask about benefits and taxes before you set rent. The answer depends on the benefit. Here is what to ask: Does rent from a room count as income for any benefit I receive? How do I report it on my taxes? Ask your benefits office and free tax help.

Conversation starters

If you are an adult child or friend raising home sharing with an older adult:

• "Your community has always looked out for each other. Would you want to hear how home sharing works through a program?"
• "What if your faith leader invited a home sharing program to speak? You could just go and listen."
• "If you look into it and decide you would rather keep the house to yourself, that is a fine answer."

If you are an older adult talking with family or caregivers:

• "Someone from my congregation needs a place, and I have the room. I want to go through a program so it is done carefully for both of us."
• "The program checks references and helps us write an agreement. Would you come to the first meeting?"
• "Sharing my faith with someone might help us get along. It is not the only thing that matters, and it is not a promise."

Your faith community brings the trust. A home sharing program brings the process. The two of you decide the rest.

Home sharing and older adults

Home sharing works at any age. Older adults are one of the fastest-growing groups sharing a home with someone who is not family².

Last reviewed September 25, 2026