by Craig Wiesner – San Mateo Daily Journal – Nov 28, 2023
If Laura Fanucchi, who has worked for HIP Housing for 31 years, could wave a magic wand to change something in San Mateo County, she would make it much easier for senior citizens to find and keep housing here. Seniors on fixed incomes are among the hardest hit by the affordable housing crisis in our area. A heartbreaking example is the man in his 80’s who used to share space in his home with others but now, after 36 years in stable housing, finds himself having to find someone willing to share their space with him after he lost his apartment. Can you imagine being in your 80’s and fearing becoming homeless? HIP Housing helps him and others, but can only help so many.
On the other end of the spectrum there’s a young hospital worker in his 20s, commuting hours every day because he couldn’t afford his own place here. HIP Housing to the rescue, matching him up with a man in his 50s who had inherited his parent’s home but couldn’t afford to make the mortgage and property taxes without a little help. HIP Housing’s Home Sharing Coordinators helped find just the right person to move in!
Then there were three brothers, living in their sister’s home. She needed to move far away and the brothers didn’t want to leave the community they’d lived in for decades. One disabled, another elderly, and the third who worked in the county for years, HIP Housing worked with them in their new Housing Readiness Program and helped them secure an affordable place to call home.
These are just a few of the tens of thousands of stories of people trying to keep four walls and a door around them in one of the wealthiest places on the planet. Encouraged by a Journal reader, I’ve been working on a series of columns about homelessness and poverty. In each I lift up a program, person or organization working to make a difference. A criticism some readers have raised is that I just share a “few feel good stories” that only represent a drop in the bucket. In reality each person, organization and program I’ve written about helps hundreds or thousands of people each year.
For over 50 years HIP Housing’s Mission has been to invest in human potential by improving the housing and lives of people in our community. HIP Housing enables people with special needs, either from income or circumstance, to live independent, self-sufficient lives in decent, safe, low-cost homes. Last year HIP Housing helped nearly 1,200 people find affordable, secure, long-term housing through their Home Sharing, Self-Sufficiency, and Housing Readiness programs and hundreds of others through the affordable housing units they own and manage. They’re best known for their home sharing program which matches people willing to share their homes with people who need housing. Those matches are very carefully made, with strict scrutiny and a process that helps ensure maximum success. The matches are beneficial for everyone, bringing extra income into a household that may need a little boost to make ends meet, and an affordable space for someone who can’t pay San Mateo County’s high rents for an apartment or house. It is truly a win-win for all parties, even bringing companionship, security, and help with chores. The average sharing relationship lasts four years which is a testament to the quality of matching HIP Housing does.
A frequent contributor to online comments at the Daily Journal chimes in when I write about this topic encouraging people who care about poverty and homelessness to open up their own homes to people in need. Well, I agree! HIP Housing’s biggest obstacle to serving more people is that for every three people seeking shared housing there’s only one person willing to share their space. Maybe that’s where you come in! If you’ve got space in your house, a spare bedroom or two, an ADU, please consider checking out HIP Housing’s Home Sharing program. They do a really good job of learning exactly what you as a person sharing your home wants that relationship to look like and then finding a good match with someone who needs that space. I did, of course, ask “What happens when things go wrong?” With 31 years at HIP Housing, Laura Fanucchi admitted that yes, sometimes things don’t work out, but even when they don’t, folks who were sharing their homes were often still ready to invite someone else in! Wow.
So please consider waving your magic wand, sharing your space, or other ways to support HIP Housing. I’m a sponsor of their annual calendar contest where K-5 kids draw a picture of a home and write about what home means to them. Check out this year’s amazing winners and learn more at hiphousing.org