Georgian College partners up to address housing situation

Georgian College students will soon have more options for finding somewhere to live.

The college is teaming up 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."

It allows older adults to safely rent out a room to students, providing the rentee extra income, companionship and someone who can help with chores.

The partnership offers students an affordable housing option, according to the college.

"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, Georgian College's vice president of student success, in a press release Wednesday.

"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."

The first phase is launching in the Barrie area and focuses on "building a pool of older adults who wish to open their home to a student for a semester or school year."

The second phase allows students to create profiles on the SpacesShared platform to connect with compatible hosts.

"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, SpacesShared CEO, in a press release Wednesday.

"We've made our platform really user-friendly — if you can use Facebook, you can use SpacesShared."

Georgian College says it's the first postsecondary institution to launch on the platform and that SpacesShared is customizing a program for the school.

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

Anyone who has a spare room or knows somebody fit for the program is asked to sign up at SpacesShared.ca.