Noelle Marcus grew up on Cortes Island, British Columbia, a small island community off the coast of Canada’s Pacific Northwest. Every event and group of friends was made up of people of all ages. Because it was a small community, everyone had to make friends with people from other generations, and that intergenerational lens shaped how she lived her life.
Marcus now brings that point of view to the company she started, Nesterly, which helps people of all ages connect with each other and find affordable housing by letting people share their homes. She thinks that home sharing can help fight not only the housing crisis but also student debt by making it easier for young people to find cheaper places to live and the rising number of lonely people by letting people live together.
“The idea is really very old.” It’s always been this way in multigenerational homes, Marcus, who is also CEO of Nesterly, said. “This era of single-family homes is an aberration.” People who live in board houses have a lot of history in the United States. It’s not a new, crazy idea to live with people of different generations; it’s how we’re meant to live and how we’ve always lived.
People are having a hard time finding cheap places to live because housing costs are going up. Marcus also said that every night in the U.S., about 54 million spare bedrooms are empty. These rooms could be better used as ways to share homes.
“It’s not the best answer for everyone.” It’s not a leaflet. It is a very cheap way to deal with big problems. Marcus said, “It can help you make friends and extra money.” “The rental prices are often very low, which helps with the rising cost of college, and the hosts make extra money.”
Marcus says that by 2035, half of all households with older adults will be made up of just one person.
“A lot of older people want to stay in their own homes, but half of them will have to live alone.” “That being alone has an effect on health or mental health,” she said. “How can we get all of this housing open and help our parents and grandparents age in a decent way?” Almost every family has an older family member or someone who is having trouble paying their rent.
This means that up to 77% of adults aged 50 and up want to stay in their own homes as they age. Marcus thinks that the extra money will help him reach his goal.
The multistep screening process is handled by Nesterly for both sides of the housing match. This includes checking criminal records and calling references. HomeShare Online, which used to be called Silvernest, is another home-sharing company in the same field.
Marcus said, “This isn’t like meeting someone on Craigslist and being left to figure it out on your own.” “It’s not a dating app; we’re not like Match.com for homes.” But we have a great track record of finding great tenants and hosts. Being friends is better when that’s not what people expect from you.
Since it started in 2017, Nesterly has helped more than 1,000 people find homes. Through a partnership with the city of Boston, the company first started up in that city. It then moved on to Columbus, Ohio, and is now in talks to grow to cities all over the country. Maine is the first state to work with Nesterly, and they are now taking applications for their program.
Nesterly gets paid by the city or housing authority that partners with them and a small booking fee when a match goes through. It also takes 2.5% of the rent every month in exchange for using its service team and payment system.
The head of the Maine Council on Aging, Jess Maurer, said, “Too many older people in Maine live alone in big family homes that are hard to keep up and cost a lot to heat.” “In the meantime, younger people are looking for homes, but we can’t keep up with the building.” Living together in someone else’s house is a great way to solve the housing problem, and everyone benefits from it.
Markus said that Maine was a good fit for Nesterly because its median age is the highest in the country. As of 2022, the median age in Maine was 45, which was older than the median age in the rest of the country, which was 38.
Marcus said, “We know this program can make a difference because housing costs are a problem for over 100,000 older adult households in Maine.” “This is something we can’t fix on our own.” Many people can’t go to nursing homes because they are too expensive, there aren’t enough of them, and people don’t want to go there.
Marcus said that the chance to meet new people through home sharing is often good for both the tenant and the host.
According to an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General, loneliness is an epidemic that is as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. It is linked to a higher risk of heart disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and death before its time.
“People have this idea that older people are always the ones who need company.” Marcus said, “There are a lot of young people who are moving to new cities and feel lonely who would benefit from talking to someone who knows the area and city.”
Marcus said that college students who don’t want to sign a full-year lease often like Nesterly’s flexible leases. Either party can end the lease with one month’s notice, and she said that most people stay for eight to nine months. The host can also decide if they want to lower the rent each month in exchange for housework help.
Todd Chandler, who is 21 years old, needed cheap housing close to his classes at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, but he couldn’t afford the options on campus. He just got back from studying in Taiwan, where it was common for young people of different ages to live together in the same apartment.
Chandler used Nesterly to find a place to rent a room in a house with other people. They had their own bedrooms, but they shared a living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms.
Chandler said, “I really enjoy living with other people.” He also liked that the six-bedroom house had a mix of people of different ages.
“It can be hard to find a shorter lease for a college student,” he said. “You move around a lot in college, so you can’t really sign a one-year lease.” Going to college cost about twice as much as living in a house share.
Lainie Monica, 44, owned the house where Chandler lived. She said that renting out rooms helped pay for upkeep on the old house and gave her extra money.
“The house is very old and needs a lot of work.” Monica said, “It’s nice to have extra money to help keep it up.” Monica lives in a smaller, separate unit next to the boarding house. “I think it also does something useful.” Now, nothing is affordable. People pay crazy amounts for rent these days.
