Aiming to expand affordable housing without building new ones, the city of Portland is paying homeowners to rent out spare bedrooms through a new pilot with PadSplit.
Portland, Oregon, is experimenting with new strategies to expand housing supply. The idea is to pay homeowners to rent out their spare bedrooms.
The city recently launched a 12-month home-sharing pilot program that offers financial incentives to homeowners who rent unused rooms through approved home-sharing providers such as PadSplit. Officials hope the program will free up underutilized housing space and provide more affordable options for renters.
Under the program, homeowners can receive $1,000 for renting their first spare bedroom and $500 for each additional room, with payments made after the room has been successfully rented for at least 30 days.
The initiative, approved by city leaders and funded by approximately $500,000 administered by the Portland Housing Authority, aims to test whether home sharing can help solve the city’s ongoing housing shortage.
Turn your spare bedroom into a housing source
City officials say many spare bedrooms across Portland remain unused and could provide a relatively quick source of housing.
Rather than waiting for new construction, the pilot aims to revitalize existing inventory by connecting homeowners with renters seeking lower-cost housing.
Participants must rent a room through an approved home sharing provider such as PadSplit. PadSplit is a co-living platform that connects renters with furnished rooms in shared houses.
The company has expanded rapidly in recent years and now operates tens of thousands of rooms in dozens of U.S. cities, often targeting workers looking for affordable housing near job centers.
Under Portland’s program, rooms must be rented for less than $200 a week, including utilities, which equates to about $800 a month. To qualify, homeowners must commit to living in the property, renting it to non-relatives, and making the room available during the pilot program.
A new approach to affordability
The program reflects a growing interest among cities to expand housing supply without requiring lengthy development schedules.
Home-sharing programs have emerged as one potential solution. By converting existing space into rental housing, policymakers hope to build new units more quickly and at lower cost than traditional construction.
Portland officials say the model could help renters seeking lower-cost or flexible housing options, such as hospitality workers and students.
Supporters see the initiative as a creative way to expand housing options, but the long-term impact remains unclear.
Programs that rely on homeowners voluntarily renting rooms may be difficult to scale up, and the level of participation will likely determine whether the approach meaningfully increases housing supply.
The program was not specifically designed to address homelessness, and rent levels of about $800 per month may remain unaffordable for many households with housing instability.
Still, city officials say the experiment will provide valuable data about whether home sharing can play a larger role in Portland’s housing strategy.
If successful, it could serve as a model for other cities looking to free up underutilized living space.
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