New housing program looks to match students with elderly households

The new Intergenerational Homeshare Pilot Program will match up elderly households with a spare bedroom with students looking for affordable housing.

The Elderly Commission and the Housing Innovation Lab collaborated on the program with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s office in order to find solutions to the financial strain placed both on college students and elderly homeowners in nearby communities, Cassandra Baptista, the spokesperson for the Elderly Commission, said.

“There are social opportunities, financial benefits, and it benefits the elderly communities that are able to live in their home and in their communities with extra income,” Baptista said. “Just creating a multigenerational kind of living environment.”

Baptista said most elderly homeowners can’t afford their rent and are struggling to keep their homes.

“When we asked people if they had sufficient income to cover their expenses, the majority of residents 60 and over said that they did not,” Baptista said. “We want the people who built this city and make it great to remain in their homes to stay as long as they choose to.”

To find available households, students can make a profile online and apply filters to find housing options that fit their preferences before meeting with potential homesharers, Baptista said.

“They will ask things like how much rent are you willing to pay, what are you looking for in a roommate, where are you looking to live and then what happens is that they match potential people that might work for a certain housing,” Baptista said.

Marcy Ostberg, director for the Housing Innovation Lab, said the pilot program will arrange a surplus of living spaces in order to avoid running out of housing for interested students.

“The mayor’s housing plan calls for a significantly higher number of dorms than for students,” Ostberg said. “There are a lot of college students living in the private market.”

Ostberg said they currently have paired eight households with eight students and will check in with the pairings in December to see the impact the program has on both the students and the hosts. The goal is to increase this number and continue to help students find more affordable housing, according to the press release.

“We imagine that someday there will be more houses, which would be more helpful and there is a lot of single family homes or older families where they have an extra bedroom,” Ostberg said.

Several Boston students said this plan will open students up to their communities while also making college potentially more affordable.

Cloe Bedard-Khalid, a Northeastern University freshman, said this is a good immersion tactic to get students into the city and will help alleviate some of their college debt.

“Allowing students to stay in a spare bedroom for an affordable price will allow them to decrease their amount of college debt, regarding housing and will also allow them to experience a community that isn’t just college-centered,” Bedard-Khalid said.

Juliette Bouchet, a Emerson College freshman, said this plan will help students find inexpensive housing, which is difficult to do in Boston.

“Finding housing in any city, especially Boston, can be difficult as it tends to be expensive,” Bouchet said. “Therefore, this could provide students with another option and make college more available.”

Nina Matos, a University of Massachusetts Boston junior, said she agrees with the idea as it may benefit the students who commute to local schools because they cannot afford nearby housing.

“It would allow students to be able to afford off campus housing, especially if they go to a commuter school such as UMass Boston or Suffolk [University] and do not live close to campus,” Matos said.

Eugenia Manrique, a Northeastern University freshman, said her experience living with strangers was a great learning moment and she thinks this plan will ultimately benefit students in a similar way.

“I was at a volunteering trip outside of the country where I stayed at a local community’s small church,” Manrique said. “Staying at a small unfamiliar setting was scary at first but as the days went by I got comfortable and enjoyed conversing with those in the community while learning all about their lives and life in their small town.

Mardochee Aishah Sylvestre, a Suffolk University freshman said this plan would provide other university students in the area a great new opportunity at a more reasonable price in comparison to traditional college dorms.

“It gives students the opportunity to live in households at an affordable price which can often be a hassle when students are looking for apartments and other housing arrangements” she said.