MaineHousing is launching a pilot program that will help older homeowners list their spare rooms for rent online, an effort the quasi-governmental agency says is aimed at expanding the availability of affordable housing options while simultaneously reducing elderly Mainers’ living expenses.
The state housing authority recently signed a $200,000 contract with Nesterly — a platform that connects retirees and “empty nesters” with those in search of housing for more than thirty days.
Borne out of a resolution introduced by Rep. Maggie O’Neil (D-Saco) in February of last year, this pilot program is intended to “[assist] older persons to reduce living expenses, including housing costs, by matching older persons who own homes with spare rooms to adults in need of affordable housing.”
LD 709 required the Maine State Housing Authority to “issue a request for proposals for a vendor to provide a digital-based service for matching older persons who own homes with spare rooms to adults in need of affordable housing.”
The bill also stated that MaineHousing must produce a report by January 1, 2025 detailing the effectiveness of the program, including testimonials and relevant committee findings.
At the time, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee unanimously recommended the bill’s passage and was accepted by both chambers without any roll call votes.
Click Here to Read the Full Text of LD 709
When this resolution was in front of the HHS Committee, several senior citizen advocacy groups offered testimony, primarily underscoring how this type of homeshare program can benefit older Mainers by providing an additional source of income, as well as a means to continue living independently for longer.
Jena Jones — Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Maine Council on Aging — pointed out in her testimony that these programs can also be beneficial for seniors who themselves may be in need of housing.
Rep. O’Neil’s testimony introducing the resolution also focused on the benefits that a program such as this would provide to older Mainers, while also diving into how it can play a role in expanding affordable housing options in the state.
“For home providers, shared housing enables them to offset housing costs and other costs of living by receiving rent,” O’Neil said. “For older adults who wish to age in place, home sharing can help them maintain independence longer and make housing costs and duties more manageable.”
“For renters, homeshare increases affordable housing options,” O’Neil said. “It can help address our affordable housing shortage and soaring rent costs by making use of extra space within existing housing stock that would otherwise be unused.”
Click Here to Read Rep. O’Neil’s Full Testimony
Erik Jorgensen — Senior Director of Government Relations and Communications for MaineHousing — offered testimony neither for nor against the proposal, stating that “this is an intriguing concept and it certainly appears to meet a need.”
“I know that home sharing for older homeowners is a practice that has been endorsed by AARP, and when Rep. O’Neil suggested we look at the Nesterly website, it was clear to me that such a service has a great deal of potential,” Jorgensen said. “It would seem that by automating the home-sharing ‘matchmaking’ process, it could do a lot to alleviate potential worries of the homeowner around liability and screening, while helping the homeseeker find a place to stay.”
Jorgensen did, however, note that “it is not clear to us that MaineHousing is the correct long-term home for such a program should it move beyond a pilot phase.”
“Given our understanding that this is likely to result in a program based on a third-party online platform, the program may not necessarily need to reside within our organization or, for that matter, within state government after the initial startup period,” Jorgensen suggested.
Click Here to Read Jorgensen’s Full Testimony
Nesterly was founded in 2017 by two students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
According to a report from the City of Boston published in early 2020, the average homeshare rent was $700, and some of those renting spare rooms offered additional discounts to tenants willing to help with errands and other basic household tasks.
Of the thirty hosts and fifty guests to apply for the pilot program, eight pairs were matched “with no issues,” and eighty-nine percent said they would recommend the program to others.
Click Here to Read Boston’s Full Report on Their Nesterly Pilot Program
The Nesterly website explains that it utilizes a “comprehensive background screening service” to complete criminal background checks on both homeowners and renters.
“Two references are contacted for every user and outside testimonials on what the person is like as a professional and roommate are made public on users’ profiles,” the website states. Employment verification and — when applicable — school enrollment are also required in order to host or rent through the platform.
Affordable housing has been a topic of discussion in Maine for some time now, particularly with the release of the state’s Housing Production Needs Study this past fall, which found that approximately 84,000 more homes will be needed in the state by 2030.
Initiatives associated with the affordable housing conversation, however, often prove to be quite controversial in nature.
Most recently, voters in the Town of Cumberland have been asked to go to the ballot box on March 5 to weigh in on a hotly contested proposal to construct a 107-unit affordable housing development on the municipally-owned land located on Drowne Road.
[RELATED: Cumberland Voters to Weigh In On Controversial Drowne Road Affordable Housing Proposal]
According to MaineHousing, it is expected that Nesterly will begin to advertise to Maine homeowners at some point in the next few weeks, although it is not necessarily clear at this point when the platform will begin accepting applications from potential tenants.
MaineHousing has also said that the home share program will likely become “self-supporting and independent” once it is out of this initial pilot phase.
“Maine has a severe shortage of affordable housing, while at the same time has a surplus of older residents who have extra space,” Scott Thistle, Communications Director for MaineHousing told the Maine Wire. “Many of these folks are looking to find ways to remain in their homes.”
“This pilot program with Nesterly is the result of a bill (Rep. Maggie O’Neil of Saco) that passed last year instructing MaineHousing to conduct a Request For Proposals (RFP) — a bid process — for a service that will match interested homeowners who might want to rent out a room or part of their home with potential tenants,” Thistle said. “We conducted the RFP last October and awarded a contract to Nesterly in January.”
“We are using the pilot program to explore how this concept might work in our state. Nesterly’s platform is specifically designed to meet the needs of older residents,” Thistle explained. “It is focused on security and screening, as well as flexibility for homeowners who might be interested in arranging a few hours of assistance with household chores over the month in exchange for a reduction in rent.”
“The platform manages listings, helps screen homeowners and renters, and provides a way to collect rent that removes that responsibility from the homeowner,” Thistle said.
“Nesterly will be starting to advertise for potential homeowners in the next few weeks, but our stakeholder committee is still working on how best to design the pilot to determine how to make it effective in our large rural state,” Thistle said. “This is a work in progress but we are optimistic it will may help with some of the housing shortages we are seeing.”
“After the pilot period, we expect this service to be self-supporting and independent, to operate without any state funding,” said Thistle. “The initial contract supports startup costs and provides a means for the platform to start working in Maine.”
“We do not see this as the ultimate solution to Maine’s overall housing shortage, but we do think it has the potential to play a meaningful role,” Thistle said. “We see this as a helpful tool for those who are inclined to take part in this sort of a home-sharing arrangement, to do so smoothly and safely.”
It remains to be seen how widespread usage of this platform will become once it goes live in Maine, as well as how much longevity the program will have in the long term.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25811 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25811">1 Comment
Is the State nuts. An elderly woman was just robed and carjacked in Portland and you wante me to take in some stranger. I can get protection by going to Carbells much better than this State can give Me.