Home sharing program helping address homelessness and social isolation
LONDON: An innovative home sharing program is now helping address both homelessness and social isolation.
Pattie and Jutta are a couple of unlikely housemates.
“We’re totally different,” Pattie says.
But these women, who are in their 70s, share some interests and traits.
As Pattie puts it, they are “two strong individual women coming together”.
And their arrangement works.
Pattie, who needed an affordable place to live, gets cheap rent at Jutta’s Sydney apartment in exchange for doing chores and providing companionship.
“I didn’t want to live alone,” Jutta said.
The pair met through a program called HomeShare, run by not-for-profit Holdsworth Community.
It’s where isolated seniors are matched with a person, usually younger, who is looking for safe, affordable housing.
The program received a $200,000 NSW government injection last year.
It’s money that food bank Southlake’s Incorporated would also love to have.
Founder Christine Mastello wants to match teenagers and older women who are homeless with householders in the NSW Central Coast and Hunter regions this year.
She said Share Your Home would be “like Aibnb but free”, with arrangements lasting for up to three months.
“Just give them that time to be calm and safe because sleeping on the streets, you don’t have time to rest,” she said.
As the federal budget and election looms, Homeshare Australia and New Zealand Alliance wants homesharing to be prioritised, particularly to help older people stay in their homes for longer.
Is it worthwhile?
Home sharing isn’t a new concept.
For years, programs have run across Australia for vulnerable people. including those who are homeless, disabled or ageing.
In 2015, The Australia Institute’s discussion paper on matching the old and young said homeshare made economic sense and reduced the government’s residential care and hospital budgets.
The novel housing solution has been small-scale in Australia and some programs have discontinued.
Providers and advocates say that’s because there has been a lack of ongoing funding, advertising and policy support.
The Australian Institute also noted that “funding doesn’t buy success” with programs needing talented staff and strong institutional backing.
Others say the concept is too niche, with Australians reluctant to share their homes.
Co-founder of Home Share Melbourne Carla Raynes is winding down the social enterprise and instead providing short-term affordable housing and support to people who have experienced homelessness through her new charity Bridge It.
“It was very hard to grow the program,” she said.
“There wasn’t any government funding for us and also there was probably a bit of a lack of uptake in the community.”
Aged and Community Services Australia’s CEO Paul Sadler said investing in homesharing was a “worthwhile idea” but questioned the timing given the urgency to fund unmet needs in aged care.
As for addressing housing, CEO of Homelessness NSW Katherine McKernan said long-term permanent solutions were the answer.
“Whilst innovation is always welcome, the simple answer here is actually providing affordable housing to as many people as possible,” she said.
Ms Mastello “100 per cent agrees” but doesn’t see that happening anytime soon.
“Are we just going to allow the homeless teenagers and homeless women just stay on the streets while our government gets around to building this social housing?” she said.
A Department of Health spokesperson said its aged care reforms were designed to support greater flexibility and innovation.
