The province’s post-secondary education institutions are partnering with a company to help address both the housing crunch for students and loneliness in seniors.
Memorial University, College of the North Atlantic, Keyin College and Academy Canada are partnering with SpacesShared to bring the company’s home sharing program to Newfoundland and Labrador. The program sees students who need an affordable place to stay paired with seniors experiencing loneliness who have rooms to rent.
The platform matches hosts and guests, verifying the identity of the host and doing background checks on both parties before the home sharing agreement can be finalized.
Rylan Kinnon, CEO and co-founder of SpacesShared says they have numerous safety checks in place to ensure the pairing is a good fit.
He says they do check-ins every month and send satisfaction surveys. If anything is flagged, they follow-up. They also are the ones who receive the rent, charge a $25 dollar administration fee and then release the funds.
(Co-Owner and Executive Vice President of Keyin College, Steven Taylor.)
Steven Taylor, Co-Owner and Executive Vice President of Keyin College, says there are many benefits for their students and the partnership may help them boost international enrollment.
He says at the moment they have around 150 international students, but they have been capping that number to ensure they are bringing these students into safe situations. He says with programs like this, he believes they can easily double or triple that number.
