Homesharing Programs: A Promising Resource to Prevent Homelessness Among Newly Unhoused or Housing Insecure Older Adults in the United States.

Abstract

Older adults are increasingly becoming unhoused, yet homelessness and housing precarity among older adults are often invisible. Housing insecurity also disproportionately impacts communities of color and women due to decades of exclusion from home ownership and wealth inequities. Many policies addressing homelessness tend to employ a crisis-centered approach, silo health and housing and offer few culturally responsive options for an increasingly diverse clientele. This commentary argues that nonprofit homesharing programs provide an undervalued and underused upstream tool that could potentially help prevent homelessness among older adults. Homesharing presents a promising model to address housing instability by matching home providers who have a spare room or space on their property with home seekers in exchange for rent and sometimes services. Building on established research and emerging studies on homeshare programs, this article outlines several strengths from homesharing and why this housing model deserves more attention from researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and funders. Homesharing offers a potential strategy to prevent older adult homelessness by blending housing and health. It also offers culturally responsive approaches to serve an aging population facing first-time homelessness, especially older adults who are low-income and those who identify as persons of color, sexual and gender minorities, and/or women.