*This article was previously published in Shelterforce Magazine on Jan. 12, 2022. You can view the story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the country, in urban and rural housing markets, renters contend with lower vacancy rates and rising costs as they compete for fewer and more expensive housing options. Since January 2021, the national median rent has increased by 16 percent, rising over 25 percent in 22 of our largest cities<\/a>. Housing insecurity and homelessness are on the rise. As of mid-November 2021, 16 percent of all renters had not caught up on rent<\/a>, and the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness continues to rise<\/a>. For millions of very-low-income households, the map of housing options is bleak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One underused option is shared housing. Shared housing is when two or more unrelated people live together, split the cost of rent, and share common spaces. Implemented in several communities across the country, the best practice for shared housing is for each person to have their own bedroom in a permanent housing context. Shared housing is a norm across the private housing market, but households exiting homelessness are primarily offered a single-unit option by housing providers. Homelessness is a condition of severed relationships, intersecting with a lack of affordable housing options. Many people who transition from homelessness into single units experience loneliness and social isolation, which is an especially significant issue for older, formerly homeless adults.<\/a> Deploying shared housing for elderly, single, youth and family households in and at risk of homelessness has opened additional pathways of increased affordability and supportive, live-in community connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every housing\/homeless service system has the ability to adopt effective shared housing practices to address affordability and isolation challenges. For three years, the Shared Housing Institute staff has tracked the organizational and environmental practices of successful shared housing programs. Examining and collating themes, strategies, trends, and occurrences of effective shared housing practices led to this summary of critical lessons learned, accumulated from a wide variety of shared housing approaches. As described below, these program reviews show that successful shared housing programs all have leaders committed to driving the expansion of housing options with client-centered services, operationalizing shared housing because it is the only pragmatic way to do this in expensive housing markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\t