Georgian and SpacesShared offering unique affordable housing option for students

April 26, 2023

Georgian College is working with SpacesShared, a technology platform that connects students who need a place to live with older adults living at home to create mutually beneficial sharing arrangements.

With SpacesShared, older adults can safely offer a spare bedroom for extra income, enjoy the company of a housemate, and get help with chores around the house all while giving students much-needed safe and affordable housing options.

“Older adults and students are two groups who have so much to offer one another, which is why we wanted to build a safe space for them to meet and match,” said Rylan Kinnon, Chief Executive Officer, SpacesShared. “We’ve made our platform really user-friendly — if you can use Facebook, you can use SpacesShared.”

The first phase of the home sharing partnership between Georgian and SpacesShared is launching in the Barrie area. The focus will be on building a pool of older adults who wish to open their home to a student for a semester or school year. In the second phase, students will be invited to create profiles on the platform and connect with compatible hosts recommended by the SpacesShared algorithm. The fully developed platform will allow verified users to match.

“Georgian is committed to continuing to play a key role in driving our region’s economy by attracting and training our future workforce,” said Suzie Addison-Toor, Vice President, Student Success. “We need safe and affordable housing for our students because if they don’t have access to that, it puts up huge barriers to being successful in academia, which puts up barriers to being successful in life. We also know this kind of program can also help with social isolation – both for students who may be far from home and for seniors in our community.”

Georgian is the first postsecondary institution to launch on the SpacesShared platform and the company is providing a customized program for the college. While the first phase of the project is focused on Barrie, both partners are committed to adding the program to other Georgian campus locations in the future.

Addison-Toor is optimistic about the program and working with SpacesShared who are also very student centric.

“We both see students in need of affordable housing alternatives, and SpacesShared’s vision is built around that connection to close the gap,” said Addison-Toor.

If you or someone you know has a spare room and would benefit from a student’s help, company, or some extra income, sign up at SpacesShared.ca.