SENIORS : Housemate Matches : Program pairs Valley residents who would like to share their living space with others seeking housing. Many of the participants have lost a spouse.

Betty Daniel is a volunteer at the Valley Storefront Multiservice Center for Seniors in North Hollywood, so she knew all about the center’s Shared Housing Program.

The 3-year-old program pairs Valley people who would like to share their living space with those looking for housing.

Many who sign up for the program have lost a husband or wife and want company as well as the added income.

“That’s why I decided to share my house. I was lonely and wanted some extra money. It’s nice to have someone around to tell ‘good morning’ and ‘good night,’ ” Daniel said, speaking of her housemate of six months.

Daniel, 70, has been widowed for 18 years. She’s lived alone since her son moved out of her Toluca Lake home about five years ago.

Her new housemate, Eleanor Steuer, 63, is a divorced mother of three adult children, who had to move out of her North Hollywood apartment after becoming financially strapped by hospital bills for a back injury.

The two women say their comfort in the shared housing situation comes from being willing to eat some meals together and discuss problems, but still observe one another’s privacy.

Although Steuer rents only a room with kitchen privileges, Daniel has invited her to share the den and dining room.

“When my children came to visit me, I made dinner for everyone, with Betty’s blessing,” Steuer said.

Daniel, for whom the situation is working out well, said that when she first decided to try it she got very cold feet.

“How do you know who you are letting into your home and what you are letting yourself in for?” she wondered.

Trying to calm her fears, she decided to attend one of the monthly get-acquainted gatherings.

They are held at the Storefront Multiservice Center, according to program chairman Joan Bauer, so that prospective housemates may check each other out on neutral turf.

Before the gatherings, people with living space for rent are interviewed, as are those looking for a place to live.

The process is much like what a marriage broker does, Bauer said, except that this association is not necessarily for life, and there are a lot more possibilities.

“If it is important for a person to be matched with someone of his or her own sex, age, religion and social background, we try to do that, and trust that they will be able to work some of the other things out themselves,” Bauer said.

Some of those other issues include smoking, sharing food, home temperature and cats.

There is only so much the agency can do.

Everyone in the program is screened as carefully as possible, Bauer said, but the success of the arrangement depends on what the two people are willing to put into it.

The organization keeps in touch with its clients and offers to mediate if there is trouble.

After the initial interviews, Bauer said, staff members at the gathering introduce people they think might make good housemates. But, she says, she is often surprised at who chooses to live with whom.

Bauer said anyone with a home to share or the need for housing may use this service. There is no minimum or maximum age, she said.

For Betty Daniel and Eleanor Steuer, the shared housing is satisfactory, so far.

But both women say it’s an adjustment and takes work.

Where and When

Location: Valley Storefront Multiservice Center’s Shared Housing Program, 12821 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood

Hours: Hours vary; call before going.

Price: Free and non-sectarian.

Call: (818) 984-1380.