Group helps many find a place to live
By:Roger Alvarado
Last June, Adele Villani was homeless and had no family and friends to turn to. That February the house she’d been living in with her daughter’s family was flooded and she could no longer stay there.
After four months of living with a friend, she was suddenly asked to leave.
"I guess I overstayed my welcome," Ms. Villani says.
After being put in contact with HomeSharing through Hillsborough Township’s Department of Social Services, Ms. Villani says things began to change. The nonprofit agency based in Bridgewater made it a priority to find Ms. Villani a place to live.
"We help people find affordable living arrangements in Somerset and Hunterdon counties," said Executive Director Shuey Horowitz. "New Jersey is the most expensive state in United States to rent a two-bedroom apartment. Somerset, Bergen and Hunterdon are tied for being the number one most expensive places to live in New Jersey.
"It’s very pricey to live here and what we do is create a two-income family," she added. "It’s terrifying for people especially for someone bringing someone into their home, but we do an intensive screening process that includes reference checks."
Since June, Ms. Villani, who is in her 70s, has lived in Hillsborough in the home of an elderly man who needs assistance in his home in the afternoons after his home health aide leaves.
"I really like it," Ms. Villani said. "The man that owns this house really needed somebody to be here at night. I make sure everything is OK in the house and I don’t pay any rent in exchange."
"We work real hard putting compatible people together," Ms. Horowitz said. "We keep active until we’ve found a solution that’s comfortable."
As is the case with Ms. Villani, according to Ms. Horowitz 21 percent of seekers provide service in lieu of rent.
Ms. Villani says she wasn’t scared by the prospect of living with a stranger.
"The owner and his two brothers had me over to meet me and talked to me for about an hour," she said. "After that hour one of them asked me if I wanted to live here."
"There are no illusions this is utopia," Ms. Horowitz said. "It’s survival."
Ms. Villani says she can never repay HomeSharing for all the work it has done on her behalf.
"It was a godsend," Ms. Villani said. "Thank God I found a place to live.
The organization recently reached a milestone.
"We’ve just done our 1,000 match," she said. "We have over 3,000 people who have been in HomeSharing arrangements since we began in 1984."
HomeSharing volunteers will be hitting the phones during the evenings of Feb. 5, 9 and 10 to raise money for the nonprofit agency, which has an annual budget of $170,000. Donations make up about 10 percent of its budget.
For information on HomeSharing or to donate to the agency’s fund drive call 526-4663.
In previous years the organization has raised up to $23,000, which is used to help offset the cost of its services.
"We need people to know about this," Ms. Horowitz said. "We don’t want people to lose their home or have to travel to a different community. "It’s very hard for people who don’t want "strangers" in the house but it’s better than the alternative," she added.