Home Share for Her, a not-for-profit organization in the Top of the South, launched its website portal, www.HomeShareforHer.nz on 1 November 2023. The website is designed for women to connect with each other to address their housing needs and forge social connections. HomeShare for Her, with the support of founding funders – the DIA, Tindall Foundation and Ministry for Women, took flight following Community Action Nelson’s ‘What is a home?’ exhibition in 2022 to tackle the housing crisis in Nelson and has grown into a fully-fledged, mutually beneficial, online service portal. In 2024 we gratefully received further funding support from Office for Seniors, Nelson City Council and Rata Foundation.
HomeShareforHer.nz has been designed to guide Home Owners and Home Seekers over the age of 18 through the process of uploading their profiles and provides useful resource documents, like sharing agreements and police checks. A Home Owner could be someone who has a room or a section of their home they would like to share with another woman – a Home Seeker. Home Seekers can register their housing needs, view home spaces available, and also connect with other Home Seekers directly to hunt for a home together. Both Home Owners and Home Seekers can list their home-sharing profiles on the HSfH website. There are no HomeShare for Her service fees attached and is purely an agreement between Home Owner (who could also be someone with permission from Landlord to take on a boarder) and Home Seeker. Home Owners can make a home-sharing requirements offer – either a required dollar amount or required tasks like gardening, in lieu of payment.
While HomeShare for Her is not an emergency housing provider and is referring women in crisis on to Nelson Women’s Refuge and the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust, it does hope to help reduce pressure on the public housing system. The trust also has been referring applicants younger than 18 on to talk to Whanake Youth as there is special Youth Law that applies to under 18s wanting to leave home. Currently, the service is for women only and local to the Top of the South, but the trust is happy to share its learnings with other focus groups wanting to start up similar services and is looking to expand into wider Aotearoa in the near future.
Visit HomeShareforHer.nz to register interest or email any queries not answered on the website, to [email protected]