WOODSTOCK — The Thompson Senior Center launched a program around three years ago to pair homeowners with living space to rent with people willing to assist older adults with a variety of tasks in exchange for lower rents.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the official launch of the home-share program by more than a year. In the two years that it has been operating, there have been four matches, said Shari Borzekowski, who oversees the program in her role as the aging-at-home resource coordinator at the Thompson, which is located in Woodstock.

Borzekowski primarily focused on finding hosts and guests who live in Barnard, Bridgewater, Pomfret and Woodstock, where the majority of the people the Thompson serves reside. The applicant pool, however, proved small.

“One host and one guest does not necessarily a match make,” Borzekowski said, adding that people are matched based on a variety of lifestyle factors including if they have pets, as well as the needs of the host and guest.

For example, a host who would like help with meal preparation would not work well with a guest who does not have cooking skills. That’s one of the reasons Borzekowski was excited when the Thompson Senior Center was approached by HomeShare Vermont, a South Burlington-based nonprofit organization that has facilitated home-share programs in Vermont since 1982. The organization — which serves Chittenden, Grand Isle, Franklin, Addison, Washington, Lamoille and Orange counties — was looking to expand to Windsor County.

“It’s a very mutually beneficial opportunity for everyone,” said Connor Timmons, HomeShare Vermont’s executive director. “You’re working with an organization that’s very in tune with the community and really sees the neighbors and the families that we’re going to be working with.”

As a result, HomeShare Vermont now serves Rochester, Bethel, Royalton, Sharon, Norwich, Stockbridge, Barnard, Pomfret, Hartford, Bridgewater, Woodstock, Hartland, Plymouth, Reading, West Windsor and Windsor in Windsor County, along with Brandon, Pittsfield and Killington in Rutland County.

The expansion is being funded, in part, by $200,000 through the Vermont Department of Disabilities Aging and Independent Living, Timmons said. That funding will enable HomeShare to devote additional staff, including a new case manager, to facilitating matches.

“Right now, we are at this point where this makes a lot of sense to a lot of people,” Timmons said, citing the increase in the cost of living and Vermont’s aging population.

On Friday, Jan. 12, at 1 p.m., HomeShare Vermont will host an informational meeting at the Thompson Senior Center for those interested in the program. For more information, contact Ric Cengeri at ric@homesharevermont.org.

Timmons said that, while hosts must reside in Vermont, those who live in New Hampshire but are willing to move to Vermont could apply to be guests.

“We do not make matches, we facilitate introductions so people can match themselves,” Borzekowski said.

Each participant — guests and hosts — are required to undergo five background checks and four reference checks.

“No one is getting into the matching pool until they’ve passed all those background checks and reference checks,” Timmons said.

Interest in home share has been increasing, Timmons said, and in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, the organization had more than 70 matches. In fiscal year 2023, the nonprofit had matched 224 people.

John Haffner, a program manager, for housing and transportation at Vital Communities, a White River Junction-based nonprofit organization, sees home sharing as one of the methods that can help ease the Upper Valley’s housing shortage.

“On the spectrum it’s one of the easiest things to do in terms of there’s not a lot of things you have to change in the existing structure of the building,” Haffner said. “You simply have to create space and find someone willing to live in that space.”

Before HomeShare Vermont’s expansion, home share was more of an “abstract and conceptual idea” for those working on housing solutions in the Upper Valley.

“What this expansion with Homeshare Vermont has done has allowed that network of people working on housing greater access to connect people to home sharing as a solution,” Haffner said.

One challenge of home sharing can be “interpersonal dynamics,” Haffner said, which is a challenge an organization like HomeShare Vermont can help address by facilitating introductions and suggesting matches based on shared interests.

“It takes seriously the idea of sharing space together and people need to talk about what that means for each of them,” he said.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.

CORRECTION: Homeshare Vermont had 70 active matches a t the end of the first quarter of 2023 and in fiscal year 2023 had 224 people involved in those matches. Numbers provided in a previous version of this story misstated the number of matches in fiscal year 2023.