Today’s global housing crisis has city leaders, federal governments and real estate stakeholders all pointing fingers in different directions to provide new housing solutions at a manageable cost.
Some innovative models take a different approach – sharing. Sharing isn’t unique, but in some cases, can provide a unique opportunity for better cost absorption, whether it’s roommates sharing space, or various functions sharing a space.
These innovators are re-imagining spaces to be more thoughtful, to deliver more value to residents, and to deliver value to the community at large.
Home Sharing By The Numbers
As buyers and renters look for affordable living options, more are forced into being resourceful with new practices like househacking or renting out part of their home to offset monthly costs.
Zillow reports that 31% of recent new construction home buyers used a loan or gift from friends or family, 19% are co-buying with a friend or relative, and 34% said househacking was a major consideration when they purchased.
Zillow also reports that there are about 21 million homes where older residents don’t have children yet have at least two extra bedrooms. This has primed a trend of coliving. Noelle Marcus, founded the coliving company Nesterly, after discovering more than 54 million empty spare bedrooms across the U.S.
ApartmentList also reports that nearly 60% of U.S. homes have at least one spare bedroom. And, while many homeowner associations and condo rules don’t allow renting out a room in one’s home, many are seizing the day to make their hometown more affordable, even as costs continue to escalate.
In New York City, singles pay an average of $20,100 more per year to live alone according to an analysis from real estate platforms StreetEasy and Zillow that calculated the additional cost a person pays to live solo in a one-bedroom apartment rather than sharing that space with a partner.
Couples who live together in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City save a combined average of $40,200 per year on rent. Other cities with expensive rent, like San Francisco, San Jose, California and Boston, also come with additional costs for a single occupant, but paying to live alone in New York tops the list.
Nationwide, the typical annual savings for a pair of cohabitating renters is $15,123. That’s more than $25,000 lower than the New York City average.
Home Sharing Social Experience
With these numbers in mind and the fact that American is aging–1 in 6 Americans will be older than 65 by 2030–homesharing models offer a way to address the senior housing crunch and the broader housing shortage at the same time.
One such program, HomeShare Vermont, matches extra space in older adults’ homes with individuals in need of housing, to provide not only a more affordable housing option, but also companionship, said Connor Timmons, the group’s executive director.
Guests assigned a room in the program may provide some household support, such as snow shoveling, transportation, or a just-in-case presence, in exchange for reduced rent. Hosts can charge a maximum monthly rent of $650 and request up to 12 hours of service per week, though 25% of hosts don’t ask for rent at all.
The average rent in a homesharing match was just $359. Compared with average market rents, HomeShare guests saved more than $807,000 in rental expenses.
The program is working in eight counties in Vermont and the organization plans to grow it to reach all across the state within seven years. Last fiscal year, HomeShare Vermont had 274 Vermonters in matches. HomeShare guests provided about 30,400 hours of assistance to hosts last year, which represents a savings of more than $544,000 versus hiring help for specific tasks. Plus, low-income hosts received more than $354,000 in rental income to help them make ends meet.
“Building housing is expensive and can be slowed in a variety of ways that are outside of elected officials’ or developers’ control,” Timmons said. “Local officials should look at the low cost of setting up a 3 to 5 year stable of funding for starting up homesharing programs. I know plenty of Michiganers who check in on their neighbors during a snowstorm. This isn’t magic, it’s compassion and awareness of the crisis we’re in. Developers are not going to save us from this challenge. Technology isn’t going to either. It’s going to take neighbors, friends, and families to look around and say we can do better for each other.”
Functional Home Sharing
Zenon Radewych is principal at the architecture firm WZMH and has delivered two concepts to his native city of Toronto to address the housing crisis by adapting existing spaces.
First is the HUBS program that connects housing, urban libraries and servers. HUBS reimagines urban library locations as mixed-use spaces with housing, modernized libraries, and AI-powered micro data centers to create a space where people can live, learn, and innovate.
The idea is to take the space of the single-story public libraries in urban areas, and rebuild them by combining the three assets that would benefit from shared energy-efficient systems, meeting rooms, and data capabilities. In addition, if several libraries were rebuilt, it would form an interconnected system of AI servers, creating a community-centered micro data center network.
With this concept, the city benefits from the additional housing, plus modernizes library infrastructure without direct public funding, therefore addressing the rising costs of maintaining aging library facilities, which can require significant repairs and big dollar signs.
“Replacing these facilities with new, energy-efficient buildings reduces long-term operational costs,” Radewych wrote. “The community gets improved technology and learning resources and creative, cohesive urban spaces. Plus, businesses get affordable data hosting and AI services.”
More Functional Home Sharing
Elevate is another concept from the WZMH team that converts school parking lots into much more. It proposes putting housing on stilts above the parking to retain the parking lots, renting the parking on the evenings and weekends and adding an AI server to the housing complex.
In Toronto, where the concept is being proposed, 90% of the school parking lots are in need of repair due to more than 40-year-old asphalt that is cracking, and that has poor drainage. Plus, the parking lots mostly sit empty in the evenings, weekends and parts of the summer, which presents a revenue opportunity to have paid parking at times that it isn’t used by the school.
“Elevate ensures that these parking lots, which are often underfunded and deteriorating, are modernized and maintained by developers, alleviating financial strain on school boards while addressing critical urban challenges,” states the firms proposal. “With the public-private partnership, schools could lease land to developers for $1 per year for 100 years.”
The raised housing can go up quickly and easily because it will not need the infrastructure for basements. The housing and the AI server rooms would be above grade while new, covered parking is placed at ground level.
Plus, the AI servers could not only support the school by providing resources for education and technology, but also could generate external revenue and attract high tech partners.
The AI server would sit in either a secure 15’ x 15’ climate-controlled room within the building or as a roof-mounted submersible cooling unit, to allow for efficient operation while minimizing space and energy demands.
In the case of multiple schools being revamped, each AI server could connect to a city-wide network of servers managed by a technology provider.
“This decentralized infrastructure provides powerful computational resources, benefiting educational institutions, local businesses, and researchers while generating revenue,” said Radewych. “By leveraging the combined power of interconnected AI servers, this network fosters innovation, learning, and technological advancement within communities.”
WZMH envisions the housing with cool roofing and green technologies like solar panels to offset housing energy needs, reduce urban heat, and contribute to sustainability.
Executing On Home Sharing
While these ideas of sharing are becoming more widely accepted, they still care not an easy slam dunk. They require careful consideration and, at the same time, most require a thoughtful private-public partnership.
But, sharing is caring and home sharing is double caring.
