The Friends, a local non-profit social services organization, is bringing a national home-sharing program to our region.
Marliese Gause, the agency’s CEO, says The Friends has been working with Canada Homeshare to explore how to bring the program to Parry Sound and Muskoka.
According to the agency’s Spring newsletter, the premise of the program is that a senior living alone might benefit from sharing space with someone who is willing to provide some support and companionship in exchange for a very reasonable rent fee, a new friendship and some insights into the life experience of a senior.
“The program in Canada was basically focused on students and seniors. Now in the US and in other areas that expanded to not just students but sometimes other individuals as well. So the program has a matching process, individuals must have a vulnerable criminal records check, and there are social workers involved in supporting both individuals,” Gause says.
She says the goal is to provide a space for someone to live, usually a cost to the individual that sits between 4 to 6 hundred dollars per month and in exchange they provide up to 7 hours of some kind of service to the senior that they’re living with.
“It could be walking their dog, it could be companionship. So a little bit of a service plan is developed between the two.
It’s kind of an exchange but what we like to think of it, is that it’s also building friendships and bridges between generations because that’s often lost in the mix,” she says.
Gause says because Parry Sound and Muskoka are resort communities and a lot of the region’s housing is extremely expensive, one of the issues faced by communities is that individuals who are just entering the workforce and are at the lower end of the salary scale have almost no possibility of accessing affordable space to live in.
“What it means is that for example if our agency, which employs Personal Support Workers, tries to get PSWs from outside of our area, which we do as we are always recruiting, when they come they have no place to be. This past August we had such a critical staff shortage and in the midst of that, we had applicants from outside of the area who could not find a place to live and ended up leaving. I mean it’s just devastating and you go to your McDonald’s or Tim Hortons, and they’re busing their staff in from outside of the area for the same reason. Because what person who’s working in such occupations can afford the inflated cost?” Gause says.
“We have no idea how successful it will be. We have no thought that this is going to be the solution to our housing crisis. Let’s just put that right out there. But if it provides even a few spaces for people then it’s a win. It’s a few spaces that weren’t available a year ago. So the goal is to work on developing [the Homeshare program] and supporting it and hopefully finding some housing for some individuals who need it, while also supporting our seniors,” she adds.
Gause says she’s actually interviewing a candidate tonight(April 13th), “an individual who is interested in sharing her home in the next few days, and I will see what we can come up with. Our publicity campaign has just been running for about 2 months and so I’m surprised that we’re already at this point,” she says.
Gause also mentions the agency serves individuals in Muskoka as well, with a coverage area spanning from the two Highway corridors, Powasson south to Gravenhurst and then French River south to Mactier and everywhere in between.
Gause says anyone who’s interested in either aspect of the program should connect with The Friends by emailing [email protected], adding the agency is going to develop a waitlist for the program.
“We will be obviously taking the time to interview people and make an active search to see whether we can support them. From the senior’s perspective they’re getting a little bit of money every month that they didn’t get before and they’re having the advantage of having someone in their home, which reduces isolation and loneliness and in some cases, there’s also some kind of support involved,” she says.
According to the agency, initially, they will be looking at students wanting to expand their horizons while attending postsecondary education as well as people who are working in the area on a temporary basis. If you are a student or someone who will be working in Muskoka or Parry Sound on a short-term basis and are looking for accommodation, The Friends say this might be a project for you.