The thought of sharing your home with a stranger may give you pause, or make you feel uneasy, especially if you have children, but it shouldn't! At HomeShare Alliance we carefully screen and vet potential housemates to ensure the right fit, which is extremely important for homeowners with children. When you take your time and find the right housemate, you'll find many benefits for you and your children.
Safe and Trustworthy
The safety of your children is paramount. It's absolutely a must to have a vulnerable sector police check done, as well a background check that includes credit reports and references. At HomeShare Alliance we take care of this critical screening for you to ensure that you are matched with a housemate that you and your children trust and feel safe being around.
Good with Children
Not everyone gets kids. Your potential housemate must be good with children, must enjoy being around children, and depending on your needs, be willing to babysit or help with caregiving.
Yes, that's right!
A huge benefit of home sharing for parents, especially single parents, is that in a task exchange home share agreement it is possible to arrange for childcare in exchange for subsidized or free room and board. Of course, this arrangement must be clear and formalized in writing.
Stable
Children need stability and easily form attachments, and so having a string of housemates come in and out of a home can be disruptive. As part of the screening process it's important to ensure that the housemate you're matched with is looking for a long-term arrangement.
Create a Community-Feel
Elisa Murray explored cohousing and other home share solutions in an article for Parent Map a few years ago, in which she interviewed children like Nova, a then 14 year old who lived in Jackson Place Cohousing. Nova told Murray that "when you live in cohousing, you learn to get along with other kids really well."
One of the benefits of home sharing that Murray found was the strong sense of community for parents and their children. "We would be having breakfast, and Olga, a 75-year-old woman, would be coming back after kayaking for two hours," one mother told Murray. "The teenagers, instead of mumbling answers to questions, would sit with us [adults] and want to talk about whatever we were talking about." This community-oriented lifestyle certainly "offered a different framework for not just raising kids, but for every stage of life," Murray found.
Improved Finances
Whether your home share arrangement is a task exchange or for supplemental income, there are many financial benefits for everyone involved. For parents, home sharing can mean saving enough extra money each month to supplement education or retirement savings, or to provide children with additional educational or extra-curricular opportunities. For children, it provides access to a new mentor, and perhaps even other children to play with.
Ultimately, when a homeshare is entered into with children in mind, the benefits for parents, children and housemates are enormous. Give the team at HomeShare Alliance a call to learn more about how we screen potential housemates to ensure the safety and security of your children.