Home Sharing: A New Chapter, On Your Terms

Life has a way of bringing unexpected change. An empty nest, the loss of a partner, retirement, or simply the desire for something more. For those navigating the next phase, home sharing offers a powerful and practical path forward.

Home sharing connects homeowners with compatible housemates, creating arrangements built on mutual benefit. If you have a spare room, you have an asset. Renting it to a trusted housemate can generate meaningful supplemental income, enough to ease financial pressure, fund travel, or simply provide greater peace of mind without uprooting your life.

But home sharing is about far more than money. Loneliness is one of the most significant challenges of mature adulthood, and it takes a real toll on health and happiness. A housemate brings daily connection. Someone to share a morning coffee with, a neighbor who notices if something seems off, a companion who makes a house feel like a home again. Many home sharing relationships grow into genuine friendships that last for years.

The beauty of home sharing is that you stay in control. You set the terms, choose your housemate, and define the boundaries that work for your lifestyle. This isn't about sacrifice. It's about designing a living situation that supports the life you want to live right now.

Whether you're seeking financial stability, companionship, or both, home sharing meets you where you are. It honors everything you've built while opening the door to what comes next.

You have space. You have wisdom. You have so much still ahead. Home sharing is simply a smarter way to live it.

The idea that we can simply build our way out of the housing crisis is one that Homer Williams knows well. As one of Portland's most celebrated property developers, the man behind the transformation of the Pearl District has spent decades shaping how cities grow. And yet, after a career of turning vacant land into thriving neighborhoods, Williams arrived at a humbling conclusion: we cannot build enough.

The math is unforgiving. In Oregon alone, creating 3,000 units of affordable housing costs an estimated $1 billion. Construction takes years. Land is scarce. And the need grows faster than any crane can rise. Williams began asking a different question: what if the housing already exists?

It does. Across the United States, 44 million homes sit with empty bedrooms. In Oregon alone, that represents more than one million spare rooms in owner-occupied homes. Williams became a founding sponsor of HomeShare Oregon, which operates on Silvernest's platform, arguing that even two percent penetration of available rooms could create 20,000 rentals overnight, at virtually no construction cost.

HomeShare Online, formerly Silvernest was born from a personal story. When co-founder Wendi Burkhardt's father passed away, her mother had never lived alone. A trusted friend moved in, bringing companionship and a sense of security that no facility could replicate. That experience, combined with a growing recognition among boomers that a spare room is a genuine asset, sparked the platform.

The idea is older than any app. For generations, widows and single women anchored their financial lives by taking in boarders. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, one-third to half of all urban Americans either boarded or took boarders at some point. It was practical, dignified, and deeply human.

HomeShare Online is that tradition, updated for the people who built this world and deserve to thrive in it.

Contact Information

Candice AD. Smith – Founder (LinkedIn)

Founded - 2021

Headquarters - Portland, Oregon (USA)

Customer Support E-mail: info@homeshareonline.org

Customer Support Phone: 720-703-9389