Maybe there’s a room in your home that doesn’t get much use anymore. A guest room that stays quiet, or a bedroom that once held backpacks, bedtime routines, and late-night conversations. As life shifts and kids grow up, homes change too. Sometimes, without realizing it, you find yourself with something incredibly meaningful to offer: space.
What if that extra space could change someone’s entire life?
Across communities, many adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are searching for safe, stable housing where they can build independence and stay connected to the world around them. It’s a need that can be met right behind an ordinary front door, like yours.
Understanding the Need for Community-Based Housing
In Massachusetts alone, the Department of Developmental Services provides supports to over 43,000 children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That number represents a large and diverse community of people whose needs evolve across their lifetimes.
For many individuals, supports are most visible and structured during childhood and school years. Educational systems, therapies, and coordinated services often provide clear pathways and built-in resources. When they turn 22 and move into adulthood, the landscape shifts and they find themselves navigating new sources of support – one where housing options with the right level of support can be hard to find.
Adults with disabilities want many of the same things any of us do. For Cindy, that means having a cozy space to come back to after a long day. A place where she can make a big bowl of popcorn, turn on her sensory light, and curl up with her dog, Scout. Those familiar routines and comforts help her feel safe and ready for whatever comes next.
That sense of comfort and consistency isn’t unique to Cindy. It’s something many adults need in order to feel grounded. Having a home they can settle into and truly call their own plays an important role in making that possible. A stable home environment helps people focus on building skills, exploring interests, and growing toward greater independence over time.
Where Shared Living Fits In
Shared Living is a housing model where an adult with a disability lives in a private home with a provider who offers support while sharing daily life. This arrangement allows routines, relationships, and choices to feel more personal and responsive to the particular person’s needs.
As a Shared Living provider, you’d welcome someone into your home and daily life. You’d provide support, supervision, and care, but you’d also share meals, routines, and the kind of everyday moments that turn a house into a home. It’s personal. It’s relational. And for many people, it’s exactly what they need to thrive.
For Lissette Perez, Shared Living program director in Massachusetts, it comes down to connection:
“Shared Living isn’t just about opening your home, it’s about opening your life. It offers stability, dignity, and belonging. Small victories like cooking a meal together, celebrating a milestone, or navigating a tough day begin to matter more than anything. Shared Living creates space for genuine relationships to grow, built on trust, patience, and mutual respect. It reminds us that independence doesn’t mean doing everything alone, and support doesn’t mean giving up control.”
You’d be compensated for opening your home, but the real reward most providers talk about is the relationship itself. The inside jokes. The traditions that develop. The sense that you’re not just providing a service: you’re part of someone’s life, and they’re part of yours.
Shared Living becomes possible when someone like you is willing to open their home. The need for these homes is not abstract or far away. They exist in neighborhoods and communities across the state. Aspire is currently recruiting more Shared Living providers, because every new home expands our ability to match someone with the stability and connection they’re ready for.
If you’re interested in supporting others in a practical and relationship-centered way, download our free eBook to explore Shared Living in more depth and whether it might be a good fit.
