A qualitative evaluation of the home share St. John's pilot program

Abstract

Home sharing is defined as an arrangement between two unrelated people to share a living space to their mutual benefit. The Home Share St. John’s Pilot Program is a local home sharing endeavour that commenced in 2012 in response to the need for affordable housing options for older adults and students. This thesis constitutes the qualitative portion of an evaluation of this program. Qualitative interviews were conducted with sixteen home share participants in the fall of 2012 with the primary goals of understanding the participants’ experiences with home sharing in relation to facilitating aging in place, social inclusion, and intergenerational learning; and, more generally, to explore home sharing best practices. Although limited by the short duration of the pilot matches, the findings suggest that home sharing is a desirable and affordable housing option, with the potential to address some broader systemic issues of an aging population.