Pat Kyer (left) and Bruce Nygard (right) cook up a tasty meal on the barbecue. Nygard and his partner Caroline Jobe participate in a home sharing program. Kyer has lived in a suite in their home for five years. (photo by Caroline Jobe)

Home sharing creates relationships
By Laura Walz, Powell River Peak

A Powell River couple feel like they have an additional member of the family through their participation in home sharing.

Caroline Jobe and Bruce Nygard have opened up their home to Pat Kyer, a person with a developmental disability. “He’s included in a lot of things with us, even with our friends,” said Jobe. “If we’re invited anywhere, he goes with us.”

Kyer, who has lived with Jobe and Nygard for five years, has his own suite, which has a door into their house. He cooks for himself and has part-time work in the community. He walks the couple’s dog and helps around the outside of the home with landscaping and mowing the lawn.

“We’re just guiding him through his life,” Jobe said. “The whole idea is inclusion. He has a home here because he feels part of our family.”

Jobe and Nygard’s situation is one of many which fall under the home sharing program, which is run by both Community Living BC (CLBC) and the Powell River Association for Community Living (PRACL).

The demand for home sharing opportunities is increasing, said Mary Dowdall, CLBC’s community planning and development manager for the Coast North Shore region.

“As people get older, as people transition out of school, they want to move out on their own as they are 19, 20, 21,” she said. “We have more people wanting to live, not necessarily in a staffed residential home, but in a roommate situation or a basement suite.” Home sharing describes a situation in which an adult with a developmental disability shares a home with someone who provides ongoing support, Dowdall explained.

“Home sharing is a very broad and flexible label that includes a wide variety of arrangements,” she said. “In some situations, home sharing involves very close relationships. The individuals within the home share not only their physical space, but also their lives. The members of the home spend a lot of time together and are actively involved in one another’s daily activities.”

In other situations, the home sharing arrangement is characterized by more independent relationships. “The members of the home generally go their own ways and come together at specific times or for specific purposes,” Dowdall said.

Home sharing is an opportunity to share “your life and your home with somebody,” said Lynn Roberts, PRACL program manager. “We’re looking for many variations of home sharing. It’s a residential option, which means that your imagination is the only limit of how it can work.”

People are compensated based on the amount of support provided, added Roberts. “It’s on an individual basis,” she said. “The plan is individual, the pay is all individual.”

The organizations also match an individual with a home sharing provider, Roberts added. “We try and match like interests and needs,” she said. “The provider will also have needs that they want matched.”