COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County residents in search of affordable housing will soon have a new resource to help them find it.

Online applications for HomeShare Kootenai County are set to open Feb. 10 at homesharekc.org.

The concept is to match people with spare rooms in their homes — such as seniors, singles or snowbirds — to people seeking a place to rent. Renters might be local workers, traveling nurses, college students or others in need of affordable housing. Suitable homes include houses, apartments, condos and manufactured homes.

“If you have a spare room in your home, it’s intimidating to go on Facebook or something like that to get a roommate,” said Carrie Ward, the program’s executive director. “This makes it a lot less intimidating.”

HomeShare Kootenai County will screen applicants and conduct background checks on both home providers and home seekers. The program will also conduct interviews to help ensure a compatible match, then introduce the parties.

There is no application fee, Ward said, though successful matches will have a small, one-time fee to help cover part of the program’s costs — a percentage of a single month’s rent from the home provider and a flat fee from the home seeker.

Though other homeshare programs exist nationally, HomeShare Kootenai County is the first of its kind in Idaho.

“This is a really unique opportunity to provide local folks with affordable housing,” said Kiki Miller, a Coeur d’Alene City Council member and member of the HomeShare Kootenai County board. “That’s just a dire need here.”

Miller, an affordable housing advocate who has helped lead the program’s formation, first learned of the homesharing model around two years ago.

“I had been searching for any sort of solutions that would provide local worker housing,” she said. “It could be a really great option or a lot of people. It’s affordable housing with inventory that already exists and we have the ability to have community behind it.”

The local program is modeled using best practices from the National HomeShare Resource Center, which include criminal background checks, follow-up support and conflict mediation.

Louisa Rogers is a board member and a student success navigator for the Center for New Directions at North Idaho College. She believes Homeshare Kootenai County will provide valuable opportunities for the students she serves.

“Housing is probably the top issue they face,” she said. “We’ve had students who are living in their cars or in roommate situations that aren’t good. Being able to have a resource for them to be connected to a home will be incredible.”

Rogers noted that the program is just one answer to the complex question of how to provide affordable housing in Kootenai County.

Lindsey Swingrover, who also serves on the board, echoed that sentiment.

“I grew up here and I love it here,” she said. “But if I tried to move here now, I wouldn’t be able to. We need to be creative and think outside the box for how we get people into houses.”