The Alameda County Home Match program matches people seeking housing with older adults who have space in their homes.
Run by nonprofit organization Front Porch, Home Match has active programs in Marin, Contra Costa, San Francisco and Alameda Counties. Alameda Free Library hosted a speaking event with Alameda County Home Match Director Rachel Matthews—moderated by librarian Oliver Mills—to promote the program on Wednesday, November 19.
“How we get a lot of participants is somebody either hears about it or somebody who participated in the program [shares it] and says ‘it worked for me,’” Matthews told the Alameda Post.
The program makes matches by vetting both participants and home providers and then introducing the two, but does not oversee the actual housing. Matthews has been with Home Match since 2022, and said the program has made 80 matches in that period.
“Of those 80 matches, none have come to more of a dramatic end than one party or another giving a 30-day notice,” Matthews said.
Prior to making matches, Home Match conducts a background check, interviews both parties, verifies proof of income, and tours the home-provider’s house. Matthews said the program is of major benefit for seniors for a variety of reasons, including those who are looking for companionship.
“We don’t get involved in any caretaking—there’s never caretaking—but many people just want the safety factor of somebody else in the house,” Matthews said. “If someone falls out of bed, is there anybody there to call 911? Is anybody there to hold that person’s hand until they get there?
Matthews said one compatible match she’d recently made was between a housing-seeker who had just had surgery and was using a wheelchair, and a home-provider who was a wheelchair-user as well.
“There are no steps going into the house, and they chitter-chatter all day and are having a grand old time,” Matthews said.
The service is free, funded through Front Porch. The organization owns several senior residence facilities in the Bay Area and select funds from those facilities go toward programs like Home Match.
Matthews said promotion occurs through word of mouth, tabling, as well as relationships with community groups and local governances.
“Because we work with both the providers and the seekers, every place I go is a combination of [outreach] to both,” Matthews said.
Those who are interested in the program can contact a representative on the Home Match website, see some currently available rooms online, or contact a Home Match representative at 510-350-4367 or [email protected].
Sindhu Ananthavel is a contributing writer to the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Sindhu-Ananthavel.
