By Sandra Strieby
Online service matches homeowners, tenants
While it’s long been common for young people to share housing with friends or colleagues, unrelated older adults have been less likely to set up housekeeping together.
In the last several years, though, changing lifestyles and a dearth of housing choices have inspired people to think creatively about where and how they live. Shared housing — often termed “homesharing” — has gained popularity nationwide, and among those who’ve taken to the idea are seniors who want to stay in their homes as they grow older.
Methow At Home will host a Zoom presentation on homesharing at 9 a.m. on Feb. 8. Amy Ford of Silvernest will be the featured speaker.
Silvernest operates a nationwide online platform that matches homeowners and tenants, with a focus on finding housemates for empty nesters, retirees and other aging adults. On its Facebook page, Silvernest describes itself as “a roommate matching and house sharing service for boomers and empty nesters with space to share.”
Ford, the organization’s vice president of strategic partnerships and business development, will present an overview of the platform, provide some details about the process of matching homeowners and tenants, and answer questions.
Methow At Home was launched in 2015 to support seniors who want to age in place. Methow At Home Program Manager Deirdre Cassidy became interested in homesharing when she learned about Silvernest at a conference. She was struck by how well homesharing “meshes with Methow At Home’s mission,” she said, as it can provide a host of benefits for seniors who want to stay in the homes they love. Sharing could also help address the valley’s growing housing crisis, with housemates occupying bedrooms that now stand empty.
Methow At Home introduced Silvernest to the community in 2021 with an online presentation that focused on both individual and community benefits of homesharing. Last fall, Methow At Home and Jamie’s Place, which operates two adult family homes for elders in Winthrop, were able to partner with Silvernest to provide a dedicated page on the Silvernest platform where potential hosts and tenants in the Methow can create listings and seek matches.
Jamie’s Place has been working in collaboration with “pretty much every social service organization in the valley” to evaluate the community’s senior housing and care needs, said Jamie’s Place Executive Director Rana Clarke. Funds for the homesharing partnership with Methow At Home came from a Game Changer grant that the Community Foundation of North Central Washington awarded to Jamie’s Place.
Jamie’s Place also sought and won a rural health planning grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). That grant provides funds to work on “how we can support people who are aging in place and need more care” in the context of the community as a whole, said Clarke.
Evaluating needs
Just under two years ago, the Methow Valley’s social service organizations formed SASH, the Senior Assessment for Support and Housing steering committee. The committee engaged a consultant who found that the valley’s senior population is growing eight times as fast as the Methow’s population as a whole; by 2025, according to SASH’s report, over 30% of the valley’s population will be 65 or older.
Those findings reflect a national trend. Early in 2021, the Urban Institute (UI) reported that the number of senior households in the U.S. would increase by almost 14 million between 2020 and 2040. At the same time, housing costs are climbing; in its 2022 report on the state of the nation’s housing, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) reported sharp increases in the cost of both owner-occupied and rental housing.
Both the JCHS and the UI report that renters are among those most likely to be cost-burdened — that is, to spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Those age 65 and up have seen the fastest cost-burden increases, the JCHS reports. In the face of rising costs and increase in demand, the UI researchers forecast a sharp rise in the need for affordable senior housing over the next two decades.
The need for more affordable housing will come as no surprise to Methow Valley residents, who’ve been scrambling to keep themselves adequately housed for decades. In 2020, the Methow Housing Trust estimated that the Methow Valley had a 350-unit housing shortage, with affordability diminishing as incomes fail to keep pace with rising housing costs.
The HRSA and Game Changer grants are intended to address the community-wide need for more housing as well as fill some gaps in the senior housing continuum. Both Jamie’s Place and Methow At Home see homesharing as one piece in the valley’s housing puzzle.
Reasons for sharing
A 2018 AARP survey found that almost half of adults now share housing or would be willing to share as they age. The same survey revealed that more than three-quarters of adults 50 and over want to remain in their homes and communities, and yet many doubt their ability to do so. Having someone on hand to share chores and help with transportation is a key reason for considering sharing a home, the survey found.
Homesharing also reduces social isolation, said Cassidy; it provides the housemates with companionship and may lead to long-lasting friendships. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), isolation comes with high costs, increasing the risk of dementia and premature death. The COVID-19 pandemic helped everyone understand first-hand how challenging isolation can be, and numerous studies back that up.
Sharing a meal, going for a walk, having a conversation, or knowing that someone will be there when you get home can lift spirits as well as provide tangible health benefits.
The third common reason for sharing a house is financial. The cost of living alone can be prohibitive, especially for seniors on fixed incomes. Living with a housemate can be a win for both parties — hosts earn some extra income while tenants save on the cost of renting an entire house by themselves.
What about the potential for things to go wrong? People may be hesitant to share due to misconceptions about sharing or fear that the match will go badly, said Cassidy. Asked why people may resist sharing, Silvernest’s Ford cited “security, compatibility, managing expectations and boundaries, and what to do if it doesn’t work out. These are all logical considerations, and ones we try to directly address on our platform.”
Silvernest screens participants and evaluates compatibility, said Cassidy, reducing the risk of a bad fit, and background checks and identity verification are available. The organization also establishes a “honeymoon period” at the outset, and will arrange for a tenant to depart if the homeshare does not work out, she said. A help center, secure messaging, and an online chat feature further support users in establishing and maintaining a successful relationship.
Who may want to share
While the opportunity to share may be particularly welcome for seniors, people of all ages face unmet housing needs. Students, working people, or parents with young children may benefit from sharing as well. Clarke noted that middle-income employees, including teachers, nurses and U.S. Forest Service employees, may not have the means to enter the increasingly expensive housing market. Homesharing is one way for interested residents to support critical members of the workforce.
To anyone considering sharing, Ford recommends identifying needs and wants at the outset. “Reflect on what is really important to you,” she said. “Is it privacy? Is it pets? Noise levels? Guests? What are you concerned about? Be honest with yourself … Taking that time to truly evaluate what’s important to you can go a long way in finding a compatible match.”
Things like agreeing on ground rules and keeping lines of communication open can make sharing more enjoyable and more likely to succeed.
Will it work in the Methow?
Homesharing has been gaining popularity in urban areas, and most of Silvernest’s homesharing listings are in cities. The Methow Valley, with its small, widely-distributed population, presents different needs, challenges and opportunities than a larger area might — for instance, Ford notes, living in a rural area can increase the risk of isolation, and severe weather may be more likely to leave older adults stranded than it would in a city.
The AARP’s survey showed that small-town and rural seniors share many housing preferences with their urban counterparts. They are about as likely to share or be willing to share housing as seniors in more populated areas, and both rural and urban residents have a strong inclination to stay in their homes as they age.
In fact, according to the AARP, “Almost half of rural adults report that they will stay in their current home and never move compared to only a third or less of urban and suburban adults who say they will never move from their current home.”
Anyone interested in learning more about homesharing and how it could work in the Methow is welcome to participate in Methow At Home’s presentation —I t’s free for Methow At Home members and non-members.
Register at https://methowathome.clubexpress.com; click the “Home Sharing Made Easier with Silvernest” link under the “Upcoming Events” heading. Methow At Home will provide a Zoom link once registration is complete.
