==== Front Innov Aging Innov Aging innovateage Innovation in Aging 2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 10.1093/geroni/igaa057.168 igaa057.168 Abstracts Session 2850 (Poster) Aging in Place: Supportive Individual, Family, Community, and Environmental Factors AcademicSubjects/SOC02600 More Than Just a Room: Results From an Intergenerational Home Sharing Program in Toronto Martinez Laura 1 Mirza Raza 2 Austen Andrea 3 McDonald Lynn 4 Klinger Christopher 4 Hsieh Jessica 4 Salomons Tonya 5 1 National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly, Toronto, Canada 2 National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 3 City of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 4 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 5 Services and Housing in the Province, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 2020 16 12 2020 16 12 2020 4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”51 52 © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract Older adults prefer to live in their own homes for as long as possible — to 'age in place' — but for myriad reasons may be unable to do so. To address this, a number of housing alternatives have been explored, including homesharing, or homeshare, an exchange-based shared housing approach with the potential to empower older adults to age in place by enabling them to obtain additional income, companionship, and assistance with completing household tasks in exchange for renting out a room in their home. An intergenerational homesharing pilot program was launched in Toronto, matching older adults (55+) with postsecondary students. With limited research in the area, a mixed methods research study was embedded within the pilot project with the goals of: 1) conducting a scoping review to map and synthesize the literature related to outcomes of homeshare participation for this population, 2) conducting in-depth interviews with homeshare participants (N=22) to learn about their experiences, and 3) conduct a full evaluation and exit survey to better understand the implications of the project. Results were organized around the following themes: (1) benefits and challenges of participating in homeshare for older adults; (2) intergenerational engagement as social exchange; and (3) the key role of agency facilitation as a determinant of the experience of homesharing for older adults. Results spoke to the unique benefits and challenges of participating in homeshare for this population. Findings were used to derive implications for policy and practice, as well as highlight areas for future research.