Boston Gal's Open Wallet

If it works for them - great. It would feel way to risky to me to have boarders I didn't know or didn't even have a reference for shacking up in my house overnight. Unless you have a way to lock off that room from the rest of the house, there is no way I would do it.

 

My mother took in boarders when my parents divorced in the 70s. She worked thru the campus housing administrative office and accepted grad students only- she wanted boarders who were more established in their schooling rather than kids off from home for the first time. It was really interesting meeting so many different types of people over the years, with such different backgrounds and goals for their lives. However, about 15 years ago, it was decided that the housing administration wouldn't allow those renting rooms to "discriminate" as to the types of people rented to- and Mom could no longer designate grad students as her choice. She pointed out the ridiculousness of making people take in basically anybody- Russian Roulette style- and they said she was free to just not rent. So she quit doing it.

We had basically had over 50 people in and out of our lives over the time she had done this- but that wasn't enough to "prove" she wasn't "discriminating."

She only ever had 2 boarders at a time- two spare bedrooms. They also each got a cupboard in the kitchen for their food and they shared an extra refridgerator. They used our pots and pans, stove, etc- but the rule was clean up after yourself. We had some who literally couldn't boil water (one girl from Long Island burned an enameled teapot onto the electric burner when she forgot about having it on the stove- the only real incident we had!), so Mom taught them a lot. Grocery trips were often combined- boarders would just ride along.

I prefer the more long term committment of a boarder to having the uncertainty of bed and breakfasters. My partner and I have discussed the possibility of boarding in our later years- or possibly working w/ DSS and taking in foster teenagers (we have done this informally already).