Bellingham homeowners can help tackle housing crisis with room share program
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- Bellingham partners with Nesterly to launch home sharing pilot for spare rooms.
- The program could add 250 rental matches over 5 years.
- Home sharing aims to ease housing strain amid high rents and low vacancy rates.
The city of Bellingham is launching a new program aimed at helping homeowners fill empty bedrooms in their homes while also providing renters with increased access to housing options.
The “home sharing” program will provide “much needed long-term housing options to the community in exchange for rent or, sometimes, chores,” according to the city.
The program is being administered through an online home sharing platform called Nesterly, with which the city is partnering to match hosts with renters. Nesterly advertises itself as a platform for intergenerational living that supports older homeowners financially and socially, while tackling the housing crisis by providing renters with more affordable options.
The partnership comes after Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund signed an executive order in November directing city departments to take immediate actions to increase housing opportunities in Bellingham. Persistent low vacancy rates and rental prices that exceed the median wage for affordability locally are contributing to significant levels of competition for affordable units and increasing cost burdens for many households.
In Bellingham, 24% of homeowners and 56% of renters are cost-burdened, according to the city.
“The city of Bellingham is addressing our community’s housing crisis in a variety of ways,” Housing and Services Program Manager Samya Lutz told The Herald. “Helping to facilitate home sharing here is one of them. Home sharing allows us to increase housing stock in Bellingham by turning unused bedrooms into rental opportunities.”
The city issued a request for proposal for a home sharing pilot program in January.
“There are a significant number of homeowners who are not using all their existing bedrooms,” the request for proposal states. “A number of these existing homeowners struggle to remain stably housed themselves and could benefit from a housemate to help cover their housing costs and/or help with up-keep of the house or other chores, provided appropriate program supports and assurances are available.”
A 2022 Redfin analysis found that empty-nest baby boomers own about 3 in 10 — 28% — of the nation’s large homes. Those homes often have multiple empty bedrooms and aren’t hitting the market, which is one of the many factors limiting housing supply.
While Lutz said it’s not possible to determine the exact number of unused bedrooms in Bellingham, estimates from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey put the number between about 4,000 and 10,000.
Lutz estimates that the Nesterly pilot program will make at least 250 matches locally over five years.
“This is a cost of approximately $1,300 per match, which is three hundredth the cost of building a new unit. It is expected that this program would start slowly, with approximately 10 matches in the first year, increasing over time to 100 matches in the fifth year,” Lutz told The Herald.
This program could complement efforts to increase housing opportunities at a time when building new housing is very expensive, exceeding $400,000 per unit in large multi-family buildings in 2022, according to Lutz.
“The city’s housing levy and other state and local funds typically provide more than $10 million per year in funding for housing and related services for low-income residents in Bellingham. The majority of that funding (more than 60 percent) is spent on building new rental housing targeted to low-income residents,” Lutz said.
Available rental rooms in houses are listed on other platforms, including Craigslist and creative housing Facebook groups. But Nesterly’s founder told PBS News Hour in 2020 that the service is unique in that it offers greater support and security than other services.
Nesterly’s platform deals with matches, manages user verification and background checks, secures automated payments and provides a customizable rental agreement.
No cost is associated with creating a profile and searching on Nesterly. Listing a rental is also free.
However, a one-time booking fee of between $95 and $195 will be charged to a renter upon confirming a home share, in addition to a 2.5% fee of the monthly rent for ongoing platform use and customer support.
Nesterly will make rental price recommendations relative to the market rate in a specific area. Hosts are ultimately able to set the price. Renters can negotiate costs by offering to lend a hand around the house with things like chores or yard work.
The Bellingham/Whatcom County area is one of seven locations across the United States — and the only West Coast region — offering room matching through Nesterly. The area just became available for home sharing Tuesday. No listings were yet available for the Whatcom County area as of June 17.
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 10:51 AM.
