Homesharing Program Celebrates 25 Years
A local program helps residents keep their homes by pairing them with roommates.
Bonnie Jackson, 67, is thankful still to be living in her yellow-with-green-and-white-trim three-story home in north Evanston. Nine years ago, her future in the 100-year-old house was uncertain. Two weeks after being laid off by Motorola, Jackson – a divorcée living alone – was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. "I was trying to figure out how I was going to pay the mortgage," she recalls, her voice quavering just slightly due to the Parkinson's. She decided to rent out her two vacant rooms through a renting program at Northwestern University, but it was scary blindly introducing a stranger into her home. The next year, Jackson learned about local nonprofit Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs' Homesharing program and has …
