Charlene & Daniela: Finding Home Away from Home

Charlene (Housemate): I'm Charlene, and I'm a second year student at UofT Scarborough from Hong Kong.

Daniela (Housemate): My name is Daniela Boulton and I am a first year student at the University of Toronto, where I'm studying political science and economics. I'm originally from Venezuela, but I've moved around a lot.

How did you hear about Sparrow?

Daniela (Housemate): I heard about Sparrow by simply searching through the web before coming here. I was looking for housing off campus because the universities have very limited on campus residence options.

Why did you choose Sparrow?

Charlene (Housemate): For my situation, I was mostly considering the location. Sparrow did a good job at finding me a place in the right location. It was a bit difficult to assess whether this was safe or not. Since I was all the way in Hong Kong and searching for a house. I got to meet Letty, actually, through the phone and we got to Facetime and all that.

Daniela (Housemate): I think as an international student, one of the biggest challenges is separating from your family. You have your whole life living with them and suddenly they're not there anymore. And there are a lot of things that you have to struggle with now that you're living by yourself, such as making food, cleaning the house. Your only responsibility is not education anymore. I think homesharing really helps with that because it's kind of a second home. My mom refers to Letty as my second grandma because she helps me with so much stuff, such as preparing food, for example, or sometimes she gives me tips on how to clean.

How are you getting along with Daniela?

Charlene (Housemate): Daniela is such a great roommate. I have a sister back at home and I feel like Daniela is the same. She's like family to me - I feel like we are able to communicate and make jokes with each other, but we're also able to do our own separate things at the same time.

What makes Sparrow different from other platforms?

Daniela (Housemate): Something that I really liked about Sparrow is they have the profile matching feature, which I thought was extremely helpful in knowing what type of person you will be dealing with when you are going to homeshare with somebody else. It informs you very well on the type of things that you'll be dealing with and it helps reduce a lot of stress or anxiety that you might be feeling about the homesharing situation.

Would you recommend Sparrow to other people? If so, why?

Daniela (Housemate): Yes, I would recommend Sparrow to other students. I think it's the most trustworthy platform in Canada for affordable housing. It definitely has advantageous features such as a profile matching as well as a simplicity which students usually struggle with because they're unfamiliar with the housing situation in Canada. So yes, I would recommend it.

Charlene (Housemate): I think the main thing about international students is that they want to look for affordable housing. Condos here are really, really expensive and you do need a roommate to help with the rent. But in situations like when you can't find a roommate and you really need a solution quickly, I feel like Sparrow can really do a good job of helping.