Inside HomeShare Ulster County: A Community-Based Approach to Affordable Housing

The region’s housing crisis rarely shows up in a single dramatic moment. It arrives gradually—in the rent that jumps another $200, in the search for a room that stretches from weeks into months, in the uneasy stories people exchange about sublets gone wrong or housemates who turned out not to be who they said they were. For many residents, the prospect of finding a safe, affordable living situation has become a source of constant low-grade anxiety.

Inside Family of Woodstock’s offices, the solution doesn’t involve groundbreaking ceremonies or zoning battles. Instead, it begins with a conversation. HomeShare Ulster County—launched as HomeShare Woodstock in 2022 and expanded countywide soon after—matches people who have spare rooms with people who need them, creating living arrangements that are part housing solution, part social support.

The formula is deceptively simple: use existing space, screen participants thoroughly, and support the match long after the introduction. To date, the program has facilitated 13 matches, each built around the idea that housing works best when it’s built on clarity and trust.

“We’re never going to have the numbers that affordable housing builders can point to, but in our specific niche we can get people into housing in less time than it takes to build and for a tiny fraction of the cost, by repurposing spaces that already exist,” says program director Janice LaMotta. “We love that aspect.”

Making a Match

Inside HomeShare’s biweekly listings, the range of needs and offerings shows how varied the housing landscape has become. There’s a retired air traffic controller who describes himself as a good listener and a capable handyman, looking for a place with enough room for parenting time with his young son. A painter in her 30s offers help with meals, errands, and yard work in exchange for reduced rent. An older couple is hoping to find someone who can lend the occasional hand with household tasks and keep the partially homebound husband company. A Rosendale homeowner in her 80s wants a quiet student who can shovel snow, take out the trash, and appreciate a large older home.

Rents usually fall somewhere in the three-figure range—an increasingly rare price point in the Hudson Valley—and often include utilities. For sharers, the arrangement can ease financial pressure; for seekers, it can mean the difference between staying in Ulster County or being priced out entirely.

But the key to the program isn’t the listings. It’s the work that happens before two strangers ever meet.

The Conversation Before the Handshake

Volunteer match coordinator Debi Zelko has learned that successful home sharing hinges on details most people never think to articulate. She and other coordinators spend hours talking with sharers and seekers about the minute rhythms of daily life: when they wake up, how they feel about noise, what “clean” means to them, whether guests are welcome, what health concerns are in play, whether drinking or smoking is an issue, and how people communicate when something goes wrong.

“We get deep,” she says. “Cleanliness standards, health stuff, when you get up and go to bed. Are you loud or quiet? What about substances? All of it. But there’s a magic that can happen, too, when somebody initially has a constraint that they think is a deal breaker but then they just feel a sense of ease with someone and their priorities shift just enough. People start out apprehensive, but that can change when another person becomes a known quantity. I think a lot of the division in this world right now comes from fear and self-protection, and the only way past it is for us to become more compassionate, supportive and collaborative.”

The process is more akin to matchmaking than property management. And like matchmaking, something unexpected sometimes happens. A participant who thought they’d never live with someone who worked night shifts meets a seeker whose demeanor instantly lowers their guard. A sharer who insisted on no pets suddenly doesn’t mind the idea of a small, elderly cat. As Zelko puts it: “There’s a magic that can happen when someone becomes a known quantity instead of an unknown.”

Once a match is made, coordinators stay available for the duration of the arrangement, providing mediation or support if conflicts arise. Participants aren’t left alone to sort out issues after the fact—a crucial distinction from informal roommate arrangements.

Housing as Connection

While HomeShare is not intended to create permanent housing, many participants use the program to bridge periods of transition or return to neighborhoods they feared they’d lost. LaMotta recalls one match involving a mother and daughter living in a tiny home who were paired with a homeowner offering a hookup for their unit—an arrangement no one expected when the program began. Another participant transformed an Airbnb rental into a year-round HomeShare room after deciding her property could “do more” for the community.

Those choices point to another effect of the program: shifting a small portion of short-term rental stock back into long-term housing.

But the program’s impact goes beyond economics. It often changes the daily life of participants, particularly older adults. “Isolation is the new smoking,” LaMotta says. “We have a lot of seniors who are in the program, and one of the benefits of HomeShare for that population is having companionship and a sense of security, having someone else on the property. We actually have what we call a well-being index, a few questions that we ask the home sharer to rate from one to 10 on their well-being at the beginning and then after a match, so we’re starting to try to measure and capture that impact.” Many sharers live alone in homes that have grown too large or too quiet. Having another person on the property can transform a sense of vulnerability into one of stability.

HomeShare has created a “well-being index” to measure that shift. Participants answer the same short survey before and after a match, assessing their mental health, loneliness, security, and general well-being. Early responses suggest that simply having another person nearby—even without extensive social interaction—can have a measurable effect.

Zelko sees this as part of a broader cultural challenge. “A lot of the division in the world comes from fear and self-protection,” she says. “Sharing a home pushes us gently in the opposite direction.”

Teaching a New Model

HomeShare Ulster County is the first program of its kind in New York State, which means much of the staff’s energy goes into explaining how it works. Shared housing often conjures images of Craigslist gambles or vague roommate ads; HomeShare stresses the opposite: structure, transparency, and support.

“We’re very safe and high-touch,” LaMotta says. “People need to know this isn’t chance. It’s a process.”

That process continues to evolve as more matches form and more residents express interest. The program is actively looking for additional sharers, seekers, and volunteers.

For those who want to know more, HomeShare can be reached at (845) 331-7080, extension 162, or through Family of Woodstock’s website.