Homeshare
What is your idea?
In the UK, more than half of the people aged 75 or over live alone.
Unpaid interns across the country struggle to find accommodation at low cost for the duration of their internship.
These two issues can be addressed together. We want to create a home-sharing network which connects unpaid interns looking for a short-term housing solution and lonely people who have a spare room to rent.
As an online marketplace, Homeshare will allow unpaid interns and lodgers to create profiles, communicate and find a match. Our aim is to design a simple programme for anyone to use and to find effective ways of reaching non-web users.
What is the social need or challenge your idea could address?
Our scheme addresses three growing problems at once:
1.) Older people tend to experience loneliness and isolation more severely than younger generations. Half of all older people cite the television as their main form of company.
2.) A growing majority of young graduates looking to work in the non-profit and public sectors are unable to find paid positions and are forced to accept unpaid internships. There is a form of social exclusion against individuals from lower-income backgrounds, whose parents cannot offer financial support for the duration of the internship.
3.) There are currently 8 million under-occupied homes in the UK, or 37% of the total housing stock. Schemes addressing the issue of under-occupation in which lodgers supplement the household income are not happening substantially at present.
What’s really new about your idea?
This scheme differentiates itself from other flatshare websites such as spareroom.co.uk, as it tackles two specific social needs and generates social good.
Instead of paying rent, unpaid interns, who are hardworking young professionals, help elderly home-owners with shopping, cleaning, cooking, gardening or driving. Typically they agree to spend 10 hours a week helping out and in return are provided an affordable housing solution. This helps older people stay in their own homes and lead an independent life and gives them reliable company and security. It provides homes for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them. It helps interns who struggle to cover their living costs and democratises access to unpaid work opportunities.
What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place?
An unpaid intern with an environmental NGO for four months, I found it challenging to cover my living costs in London and realised there were a lot of other young people in my situation.
In March 2011, I founded The Settlement, a social enterprise which responds to the need of unpaid interns in London and which was awarded a Level 1 Unltd Award. The Settlement is a work in progress, which ultimately will offer a friendly, centrally located house shared between 15 intern-residents and managed by a host.
More recently, I have done some research into under occupancy and the social exclusion of older people. I became aware that there is a real opportunity to take action and address both needs at once, and I thought of creating Homeshare.
From 1-5, what stage of development would you say your idea was in?
Stage 1-2. I have been thinking about the idea for a little while and have undertaken market research amongst unpaid interns. I have received positive feedback and found potential candidates, though I need to meet technology and design experts, and create sound partnerships with organisations working with older people to get this project off the ground.
What can we do for you?
Geek – the most important, as I need to find the best way of making this online tool work and reach both ends efficiently, the home-owners on one side, the unpaid interns on the other. Together we will need to take into account the fact that elderly people may not have access to the web, and work around this.
Mentor – Important, as I think I will require guidance in certain areas, for example working on how best to elaborate partnerships, for example with Age UK.
Funder – Important, although I think the start-up costs of this business idea will be low so I think the funding will be needed for marketing purposes mostly.
This idea was submitted by Milena Bottero
I have always thought this was a great idea, and I believe it is more widespread in other countries than here (Germany?). What is the relationship between this and Homeshare.org and local schemes like this Good luck.
sorry moderator – please repair formatting in previous
John – Have you got contacts in either or both of those organisations you could put us in touch with?
A great idea!
Presume there will be a ‘vetting’ process to protect the more vulnerable party?
Hey guys thanks a lot for the comments!
@John: Homeshare is inspired from homesharing schemes like the ones you mentioned but it targets unpaid interns (not students or young people in general) who need a cheap housing solution for the duration of the internship
@Susannah: there will indeed be a vetting process, with references and CRB checks. We are also planning to act as a matching system where we try and find the most suitable match between a homeowner and the homesharer.
This is a brilliant idea! It would need careful matching and CRB checks
I think this idea could really help with some problems caused by two of the UK government’s welfare reforms to housing benefit. The reforms are:
1. From January 2012 housing benefit customers living in the private rented sector aged between 25 and 24 will see their entitlement drop from the ‘one-bedroom rate’ to the ‘shared accommodation rate’. This normally means a drop to about half of what they were getting now.
2. From April 2013, customers living in social rented sector homes who are ‘over-accommodated’ (i.e. they have more bedrooms than the size of their household needs) will see their entitlement will be reduced.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_192415
This means many people affected by reform 1 will have to move, but housing benefit will only cover the cost renting a room (of which there are very few available). People affected by reform 2 will have their housing benefit effectively cut because they have a spare room.
Perhaps a scheme that matches social sector tenants with a spare room to private sector tenants aged under-35 could help both of these groups.
Although I do think Sheryl Walpole’s comment about careful matching would be very important.